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ARIZUMA 


A NARRATIVE 


BY 

JOSIAH BOND 


THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
LANCASTER, PA. 


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Copyright, 1917 
By Josiah Bond 
Entered at Stationers’ Hall 


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I 

MAR 14 1917 


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ARIZUMA 


With glowing heart, I dedicate this lay to her, my wife! 

Who coped with all the hopes and worries of this mountain life, 
With patience, constant humor, ready wit and growing love; 

The friendly hostess of all living things; and hand and glove 
With all that’s pure and sweet! And may she all the good obtain, 
That can be meted out to mortals, and heaven finally gain!! 















In simple chant, I raise my voice among far sweeter sounds, 
To sing of those heroic early struggles, that had bounds 
Within the treaty limits, which the Gadsden Purchase place; 

As told of those who met them hand to hand and face to face. 
Along the smiling valleys, and upon the mountain sides, 

Where still the eagle in his majesty, their tops o’er-rides, 

And shrieks a warning to his various scurrying prey I 
Fit symbol, he, the eagle, of the courage that e’er lay 
Within the steadfast souls of those first miners of the land; 

An ever weary host! An ever yet expectant band!! 

And as the eagle rises to the ambient ether’s height, 

Exposing all his fibre to the over dazzling light, 

Above all else, this winging thought will always domineer! 

I sing the hardships and successes of the pioneer!! 


v 












PROLOGUE 


Old Baldy, of the vast majestic Santa Rita range, 

Looks down on slopes of pine and lower slopes of oaken trees; 

A noble sentinel! and all that happens near him strange, 

To-day and yesterday and all the days to come he sees. 

He saw the barren nakedness of these serrated rocks 
Before the time of man; which now geology unlocks, 

By laying bare the secrets of deposits, which combine 
To make the country rich, in mountain ranges, rare and fine, 
Extended far and wide! 

The Atascosa, barrier bold, 

Prolongs its battlemented front, forlorn, forbidding, cold, 

Along the Santa Cruz; unbending in its sombre line, 

And cutting off the passes to the Sierritas nine. 

And from the many notched and clefted Tumacacori, 

To the severe and shapely spire of Baboquivari 

Is to Old Baldy, to the westward, but one fleeting glance. 

While eastward, the Huachuca heights in lower mid-air dance; 
The Whetstones and the Mustangs rolling like an ocean wave, 

And over them the Mule-Pass and Dragoons but serve to pave 
The foreground for the better view of mountains thrown afar, 
About a pleasant country, further sight beyond to bar! 

To north are Santa Catalina and the Desert Peak, 

The Table Mountain, Tucson Range, and where the eye may seek, 
It rests upon kaleidoscopic crags and level lees, 

That weave among the hills, until the eye no longer sees. 

To southward lie the Patagonias and Mount Benedict, 

Majestic Cayetan, Nogales ridges freely nicked 
And further south the numerous hills of older Mexico, 

Uplifted on the tilted plains that to sea-water go. 

Old Baldy looks on mountains far, and just beyond 
Are other mountains, greater, grander still. And could a wand 
Divine the hidden treasures of those hills, mankind would root 
Their lucky fastnesses for mineral wealth, and finding, loot. 

vii 


OLD BALDY 


viii 

A panorama endless, even when ’twas new and raw; 

This spreading train of nature’s gorgeousness Old Baldy saw, 

Before the time of man! and when the earliest men passed through 
The valleys, that are watered from his slopes, he saw them too. 

Of these we have no record, like the rocks’ wide open page; 

Such help does not avail to fix the status and the age 
Of pre-historic man, who came and went his modest pace, 

Without historian’s comment, and without reporter’s chase. 

But comes the time, when can be seen historic man’s approach, 
And down from northern woods, the savage tribes encroach; 

But slowly; needing time to alienate themselves from lands, 

Where forests cover all the earth, and game falls to their hands 
Without much labor, and the soil the constant rains enrich; 

And to accustom them to roasted maize and well boiled fitch. 

So down the southern mesas, comes the daring tinted horde; 
Compels its way from spring to spring, by keeping watch and ward; 
The ancient dwellers in the cliffs, defend themselves as best 
They may, inflicting unrelenting blows, with wildest zest, 

And hold their own with difficulty from the forest born. 

Along the sunny rivers, e’er resounds the battle-horn, 

Flesh-eating forest men, against the maize consumers now; 

Of these, all their traditions being for the peaceful plow. 

And so for centuries, to bandy hard strokes back and forth. 

Until the stout cliff-dwellers wear out them from the icy north. 

Old Baldy saw all this, and then a further change took place! 
The forest bandits vanished and a fierce malignant race, 

Red Indians, known by various names, Apaches mostly called, 

Came from their canyons deep, in caustic summer heats that scald, 
And fought their way along, one tribe succeeding other tribe, 

As long as there was any Indian glory to imbibe, 

Or hidden cavern in the cliffs to loot; at rapid rate, 

The dwellers in the cliffs were sacrificed to their fierce hate. 

When they were nearly gone, the Apaches sought out other brawls. 
And found them with the Indians of the western coast, whose halls 
They fast invaded, spreading terror fierce on every hand, 

Until their fame preceded them to far-off Yaqui land. 

And during all, Old Baldy sat in cold and patient state, 


OLD BALDY 


IX 


And saw these lawless aborigines their vengeance sate. 

And yet again, the panorama shows a change complete; 

For other actors tread the stage with swift and cunning feet. 

Apaches now no longer fight with copper-colored braves, 

Who had their birth within the mountain basins; nor with slaves! 

But men who came from far to fight in this enchanted field; 

The strangers bold embody glory, and the swords they wield, 

Are famed Toledo blades, of some Iberian forge the pride; 

Yet the Apaches, then in full control, in scorn deride 

These white-faced men, who, weak in numbers, and so far from home, 

Attempt to argue ownership with them; where’er they roam, 

They put their impress on the face of earth, until at last, 

The soldiers and the white men from the North bind good and fast 
The Apache Chiefs; and to far eastern jails, Americans 
Restraining lusty ardor, carry off in railroad vans. 

Succeeding to their clashes comes a new and noble heart, 

The peace of commerce, and the intercourse of cheerful mart. 

My song takes in all times, that human history helps record, 

From the days when the first American argonauts set faces toward 
The setting sun, in search of gold, adventure and renown, 

And from their happy land at home to the sea in ships went down, 
Until this day, when miners come and go in Pullman cars: 

Old Baldy looking down at them from his place among the stars!! 



BOOK I 


Where various venturous spirits make their way from worn-out Spain, 
And after quiet voyage, reach the mountain-girted plain 
Of Mexico; particularly introducing two, 

The earlier heroes of this tale, with rare adventures true! 

An Easter morning in the whitest city in old Spain, 

From whose repositories, commerce trafficked o'er the main! 

A strip of alabaster joined to neighboring continent, 

By narrow tongue of nearly sunken rock; like some worn tent, 
Concealed by drifting drapery of newly fallen snow. 

The tropic palms along the streets in single noble row, 

With feet in water and with heads in fire contented grow, 

And furnish the only tints, except the ruddy skies aglow 
With such etherial sheen and splendor, such diffusive light, 

Such vivid coalescence of the air and water bright, 

As form a fantasy of poets, and approaches near, 

The wondrous glory and effulgent day of heaven clear. 

The only earthly thing to which it may be likened best, 

Is when a chaste and modest mother holds upon her breast, 

So pure and snowy! her rose-tinted babe but young and new, 
Unblemished and unspotted in its peaceful slumber's dew. 

Robust Phoenicians founded Cadiz as far western base, 

And Carthaginians placed the port beneath the Punic mace. 

Yet later the impetuous Romans, following cruel stars 
Across the world, did covet and under leadership of Mars 
Did seize. And all enriched the town with help of mining wealth, 
Drawn both in civic illness and in the state's most rugged health, 
From ancient Tharsis, and the Rio Tinto copper mines, 

From Cornwall's tin deposits at the northern sea's confines, 

From ores of lead and silver, gold in river bottoms loose, 

From fields of iron ore, the best of all for daily use. 

The stores of metals from these sources made all commerce brisk, 
Which took the pains of honest labor and the sailor's risk. 

In breaking up Imperial Rome, the Goths subdued the land, 
And ruled it many years; and then submitted to the band 

1 


2 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


Of unrelenting Moors, who came from Afric’s conquest sure, 

And whom the olive orchards and the vine-filled slopes allure. 

These likewise held the land for other centuries in turn; 

And finally the Spaniards started in to war and burn, 

Until the Moslem leaders fled with their exhausted men, 

And faithful Christians, once o’erwhelmed, came to their own again. 

And now the lime-washed city, watered by the sparkling seas 
Was Andalusia’s comfort! Just a busy hive of bees! 

The country sent Columbus to the ocean’s far-off edge, 

To take the hazard of terrific gale and hidden ledge, 

In early days, and now a century later still went forth 
Adventurers from over Spain, from furthest cities north, 

From the far east, and nearer still, and all, with one accord, 
Proceeded to this alabaster city to emboard. 

This brilliant Easter morn, in the ancient Andalusian town, 

A gathering of earnest, stern-faced men came trooping down, 

To join the priests at the huge door of the cathedral grim, 

To pray for happy voyage o’er the western waters dim, 

And safe return from overseas to their own dale and glen; 

For in those days, adventurers were pious-minded men! 

The church was rich and full of treasures of all sorts and kinds; 

Its architecture strong and valiant like the brave mens minds, 

Who built and garnished it; and dominating level roof, 

And whitened terrace far and wide, it seems to hold itself aloof 
From all affairs of sinful men; and yet receive their prayers, 

Receive their votive offerings, and gifts of useful wares, 

And ornaments and marvels from America, whose shores 
Were sending to this city, by the ship load, bounteous stores 
And riches of all kinds; for at the time my story runs, 

The fleet of Cadiz with its armament of powerful guns, 

And venturous sailors, who had doubled long ago the Cape, 

Was glorious throughout the world for its successful rape 
Of many generations’ savings from the new-world’s chiefs; 
Dismayed, surprised and overwhelmed by their excessive griefs, 

Who gave up all, and saw their treasures confiscated, and 
Their subjects foully treated, and the riches of their land 
Absorbed by strangers, many of them Andalusian born. 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


3 


And a happy ship-load had returned this very Sunday morn 
With gold and silver from the mines of Mexico; 

And now from the excited crowd, the cry was—*“Westward Ho!” 

So coming home, endowed with wealth, with many a moving tale 
Their talk embellishing, of adventures strange, they could not fail 
To rouse to high excitement, the lucky ones about to start, 

Who, after making supplication in the church, did part 

Most gladly, some in high glee, from their new and ancient friends, 

And making way as fast as possible where the sea shore bends, 

They take to boats in laughing strife to reach their noble ship, 

Which rolls as if impatient to be off; and as a whip 

Loud cracks when flipped by dextrous hand, so loudly cracks each sail, 

The cordage creaks, chains rattle, and on shore the women wail. 

Up anchor and away! For thus it was in those stirring days! 

But now alas! the city, still immaculate, decays, 

And sits inert, awaiting hopelessly the argosies 
Of other times, and cargoes opulent from over seas. 

And ere the town had dwindled wholly in the evening’s red, 

The gallant ship had chased the setting sun to his ocean bed, 

And thence had rolled along its western course with slight control, 

As only the lofty pooped three-deckers of those days could roll. 

The ship conveyed in its re-echoing depths four hundred souls; 

Of these, from all the shipping ports and dirty seaside holes 
Of Western Europe, fifty odd were managing the ship, 

Before the mast. A few, bespangled women, on the trip 
In search of wild adventure. But the most were ardent folk, 

And while the winds revive, and loud the sails and cordage croak, 

May be described the most conspicuous of this multitude: 

A group had drifted down the coast from Santander, men rude, 

But honest, with large hearts; to these men, mostly mountaineers, 
Dame Rumour had so softly whispered in their willing ears, 

Incredible tales of new Cantabrians, rich in yellow gold, 

That they had journeyed forth to prove the tales they had been told. 

A dozen came from Burgos, capital of Old Castile, 

With Arlazon entwining thousand-colored houses real; 

Within this city’s hall repose the bones of the noble Cid; 

Near towers the grandest Christian monument, whose lines are hid 


4 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


In its cathedral bulkiness. Here Michael Angelo, 

Da Vinci, Sarto, Jordaens, glorious Raphael Sanzio, 

And other artists, both in colors and in frozen stone, 

Whose statues, bas-reliefs and columns might for sins atone, 

Or grant acquittance for their wickedness, or ills abate, 

Find resting place forever, among their brother craftsmen great. 

When the Burgalese attained America, they carried there, 

Ideals high, in art, in architecture, and in ware. 

Two score or more were Ebro pilgrims, Saragossa high 
Their starting place; and others came from Barcelona nigh, 

And Huesca and Valencia, and the wind-swept plain, 

That spreads a high and desert waste across all central Spain. 

Toledo sent its quota from its narrow walled-up streets; 

All artisans of merit, like to him who iron beats 

Till fashioned as the famous blades, sold near-by and abroad, 

Renowned for ductile strength and keenness, which all swordsmen laud. 
And such the men, as hard as steel, and sharp as razor’s edge, 

Who sailed to the Great Unknown to keep unbroken sacred pledge. 

From Seville and from Cordoba came a goodly crowd of men; 

From Cordoba, the pearl of the Occident, by word and pen 
Illustrious throughout all Islam; in the valley sweet 
Of Guadalquiver, the Eden of the Arabs, and the seat 
Of learning of the Moslem race; and from famous Seville, queen 
Of Andalusia, where Colon and Sanchez oft were seen, 

Velasquez and Murillo, Pedro and Padilla felt 

The joys of life, and here Cervantes and Teresa dwelt. 

From these two and the valleys roundabout came favorite sons, 

To hunt their fortunes in the newest land, much favored ones. 

Some rustics there from Malaga, the noted land of grapes, 

From vineyards and from olive orchards, some from neighboring capes, 
Together came, induced by tales of climate finer still, 

Than that of their own land; and so from valley and from hill, 

They jostled each the other, for the chance to take this ship; 

For glory some, for business others, some for exciting trip. 

Granada also furnished travelers for the distant isles. 

Granada! Mistress of the passes all for many miles! 

Last sentinel of the Moorish host in the peninsula. 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


5 


Indeed the wanderers from Granada who sought America, 

Were likely Moors themselves, and fleeing from the consuming touch 
Of the Inquisitors; whose benumbing, paralizing clutch 
But drove them out as exiles, giving to a new-world race, 

Ability and industry and talent in good case. 

Jerez and Valdepenas, Palos and numerous other towns, 

Had people here; both rich and poor, gay and sad, wise and clowns. 
And even foreign lands were represented in the list, 

Milan, Savoy and Naples, and neither France nor England missed. 

Among our emigrants were two, who needs must be described: 
Enrique Monasterio y Gonzales had imbibed 
All knowledge that so young and cavalier a man could hold; 

He had stormed the Royal College, like a Grandee bold; 

Had argued with the wise men in his own beloved Madrid, 

And never had allowed his native wit and talent to be hid. 

Withal a modest unassuming youth of gentle birth, 

Who realized his merit, yet with proper pride of worth; 

Was slight in mold and temperate in habits, slow in speech, 

And take him by and large, was just the one to quickly reach 
The heart strings of an anchorite. He sets out now alone, 

With high ideals and ambitions, any man might own. 

Years twenty four had passed but lightly o’er his black-haired head, 
And the meat of real endeavor was the food on which he fed. 

The other was Jose Figueras from old Almaden; 

Much older he, of swarthy tint, a very man of men; 

A giant huge with shoulders broad and buttocks rarely grown; 

A worker from his boyhood; great his muscle, large his bone. 

A metal miner noted for his knowledge of his trade, 

His skill unchallenged, and his power with pick and spade. 

He too, was shrewd, though not a scholar, gentle and benign, 
Discerning, and as good a judge of men as of a mine. 

These two before were not acquainted; to America, 

As luck would have it, by the same high road from Cordoba 
To queenly Seville, on their way to ventures they had come, 

And taking fancy to each other o’er a draught of rum, 

Had sworn eternal friendship, and had joined their energies 
For a great performance in the world; and on their bended knees, 


6 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


At the holy shrine of Cadiz, after the fashion of the day, 

Had made their solemn vows, and sealed their alliance there for aye. 
Alliance never broken through protracted perilous lives, 

Though both of them in later days had relatives and wives. 

These having sworn their lasting faith before the altar high, 

At last embark, and with the sickness of the ocean sigh. 

The voyage was not long nor tedious, and one day in May, 

They sighted the outlying islands on their westward way; 

So shortly afterward they came to the bay of Vera Cruz, 

And landed there with thanks to Him, whom no abuse 
Deters from watching over travellers on the raging deep, 

Enjoying for the first time since departing, fearless sleep. 

That city, growing rapidly by right of conquest’s dower, 

While a great mart of commerce from its founding to this hour, 

Was then a horrible, unhealthy, sickness-breeding spot, 

Upon a spit of sand, and swept by fierce winds, cold and hot. 

The flocks of turkey buzzards scavenger the arid town, 

Whose lonely beach is where Cortez at first his foot put down. 

A great commercial capital, established by the chance 
Of quiet sea, of stagnant air, and night’s alert advance. 

In early days the town’s repute decidedly was ill, 

And passengers therein delayed not of their own free will. 

So our ship’s company but stayed to gather up their goods, 

And soon as possible to haste toward jungle-flowered woods, 

That stretch above the tropical and ever verdant plains, 

Which thrive in the perpetual spring, with aid of gentle rains. 

From thence to what is now called Cordova, misnomer poor, 
Though oranges, pine-apples and such fruits suggest the Moor. 

And now to Orizaba, and clear in view the noble peak 
Of the same name; and here they tarried for a lonesome week, 

To rest their weary bones in the climate moist and temperate, 

Of that renowned and favored valley, serving as the gate 
To Esperanza’s broad and fertile plain, from where they sight 
Malinche, Popo and his spouse, and Orizaba white. 

Thence on to Puebla and Cholula, where Cortez survived 
So many battles with the natives, and at last contrived 
To bend them to his wishes. This was not so long before, 


THE JOURNEY FROM SPAIN 


7 


But that some sullen looks and angry frowns, still, as of yore, 
Pursued the strangers, who although but peasant-born at home, 
Held here their haughty heads, as if great Caesars all at Rome. 
These cities were repositories of religious zeal, 

And represented both the old and new, a country’s weal! 

From them the course led on and up to mountain passes high, 
And over them to the salty-watered valley, which is nigh 
To heaven both in height and beauty, they serenely go 
Down through the sparsely populated towns to Mexico. 

Until they had investigated every possible plan, 

Enrique and Jose conversed at length with every man 
Who had judicious hint or project that could be espoused, 

Or was presented to them, remaining they securely housed. 

And while they w T aited to assure themselves, by reason’s voice, 

Of substantial opening, they used their wits to make good choice. 
And they were gaining some experience with the native signs, 
Besides a store of information as to then-known mines. 

They made short trips to various points in the rugged hills near by. 
In search of mineral wealth; but finding nothing worth their try, 

So near at hand, they finally resolved to journey forth, 

Prepared to seek for hidden treasures in the far-off north. 

And this resolve afforded opportunity to obtain, 

The great bonanzas of the famous Arizuma vein. 


8 


THE VENTURERS 


BOOK II 

In which our daring heroes get together motley crowd, 

To go with them to the end; these are described, and none too proud 
To share in the hoped-for profits, as they share the certain risk. 

And so they leave the city singing, in ardor quick and brisk. 

Presenting letters to Salinas, viceroy of the day, 

From friends of his at home, Enrique found their casual stay 
Adorned with courtesies from all, especially from him, 

Who gave the law to all; and so their days were full to the brim. 

The viceroy learning the financial state of his young friend, 

Advised in his imperious way, that still did not offend, 

And urged to take with him some score of poor, adventurous souls, 
Who sought excitement and always kept their eyes on distant goals. 
Deterred by nothing difficult, despising all things near. 

As when impounded in a pasture fenced, a fattening steer 
Looks out and thinks the feed beyond is what he wants to win; 

If in, he seeks escape outside, and out he wishes in, 

And peers beyond for better grass, and wanders on and on, 

A victim of his own cupidity, sad to dwell upon, 

Seduced by his imaginings, until at last he comes 
To some far place, where there is nought to eat, and there succumbs. 
And so with these brave knights from Aragon and far Castile, 
Impelled by dreams of Fortune’s favors, they advance as leal, 

And steady, pointing forward, with demeanor blithe and gay, 

From one green looking pasture to another far away. 

The viceroy also counselled them to take a priest or two, 

To minister to their sportive flock, although they were but few. 

For be they e’er so wicked, hardened in all kinds of vice, 

Mankind still needs the consolations of religion nice. 

When you consider well, where is the villian fierce and bold, 

Be he unmixed corruption, by the roaring devil foaled, 

If but successful in his wars, his commerce or his graft, 

Who lacks the ministrations, cowardly and daft, 


THE VENTURERS 


9 


Of some exalted functionary of some exalted faith; 

That this is so, and has been ever so, all history sayeth. 

Just as a putrid body on the plain, with certain haste 
Will tempt some scavenger to come and flourish on its waste; 

The worse it sends rank smells to heaven, the quicker and the more, 
Will flock the buzzards from all points unseen, with thirst for gore. 

Encountering persons from all lands, among them many a priest, 
Besides the sacerdotal characters, who came from the east 
In their own vessel, whom they also might be said to know, 

Our friends, Enrique and Jose, while still in Mexico, 

(Although the priests bestowed on them but little care and heed, 
Responding to their summons, only in the direst need), 

Had little difficulty in following the viceroy’s good 

And safe advice, as soon as priest and layman understood 

That they had cash enough to furnish out the traveling train, 

Provide supplies and accoutrements, as needed to sustain, 

Against the thirst and hunger of the undiscovered lands, 

And possible danger from wild animals and savage bands. 

For up to then, the ancient cities of the great plateau, 

Made most of known geography, the way they wished to go. 

Jose enlisted Father Pablo, for the care of souls; 

As little as he himself was big; a levier of tolls 
Ecclesiastical; a Jesuit learned; and full of ruth, 

For all poor sinners who could purchase; preaching too the truth; 
Solicitous for the eternal good of those within his care. 

Withal good-liver when their stores afforded proper fare. 

A little haughty, he could keep the men in humble place, 

Whenever the occasion arises; and could set the pace, 

For men much younger than himself; he was ambitious too, 

And hoped to reach his bishopric by means of this rough crew; 

For well he knew, that if the quest for gold was fortunate, 

His share would bring him fast to high position in the State. 

Enrique found another Father willing to enlist; 

’Twas Father Idlefonso, quite a different man; with fist 
Like a blacksmith’s hammer huge and hard, and muscle just the same; 
In days like ours the church would lose a man like him; his name 
Resounding through political domains, or in a saloon, 


10 


THE VENTURERS 


He’d come to wealth or glory; at human life’s high noon, 

He really had arrived, but still was loggerheaded boy, 

Without tuition, with no culture, grace, or charm or joy; 

Yet not morose, nor ugly in his mind, nor cruel e’en 
Beyond the fashion of the day; without ambition keen, 

There was not much incentive to continuous effect, 

And he was full content to class himself among the elect. 

He took his sacred labor liesurely without disquiet, 

And so became to Father Pablo but an acolyte; 

His holy office not disdaining, but with easy mind; 

Thus ever do superior spirits their inferiors bind. 

Besides they had a motley crew, and changing every day, 
Until they fairly started with their train band on the way. 

Francisco Lopez came from Estremadura years agone; 

A blacksmith, quick of execution and as firm of brawn; 

At times the most important person in the retinue, 

There seemed at all times to be something left for him to do. 

He went out with the party, and was one to come again. 

Another, Juan Quiroz, returned with them; of all the men 
Who went out on this expedition, there were only six, 

That came to see the town once more and with their cronies mix. 
This Juan was the adroit and dextrous porter to the train, 

A trade he had absorbed since coming over to New Spain, 

As whither he had come some twenty years before, 

From Cartagena’s mountain-walled and storm-afflicted shore. 

A porter now of note, as he had organized alone, 

Excursions for the greatest travellers, his time had known. 

He cared not for this trip, and to Jose expressed dissent, 

Until Enrique spoke and to his will the carrier bent. 

He got together a force of natives for the lengthy jaunt, 

As fine a mixture of barbarians as one could want 
To see, who spoke a various language, Cora and Tarasc, 

Xapotec, Aztec, Huastec, and Mazahua, that could task 
A man experienced less than Juan; and men of Maya growth, 
And Mixtec refugees, intelligent and skillful both. 

And Guadalupe Figueroa from the Huelva mines; 

A miner very thorough, knowing all about the signs 


THE VENTURERS 


11 


Of ores and metals in the veins, and powder of the class, 

That then was known, as well as all the older methods crass, 

For breaking out the pay-stuff. Afterward this man became 
The superintendent of the wondrous mine, from which his fame 
Was spread throughout the colony. And when he finally gained 
The city later on, he was immediately retained 
To run a mine at rich Pachuca, where he finally died, 

And with his wife was buried on the mountain’s rocky side. 

The others journeyed forth, but never to the town returned; 
In some, ambition for a better place on life’s stage burned; 

Of these was Timoteo Fierres, whose descendants live 
At fair Huebabi, on the Santa Cruz. He well could give 
His young and ardent energy to this important end. 

He married on the road a Maya woman to attend 
The simple wants of his most simple life; and then the law 
Began benignant reign, and order too; he never saw 
The wondrous mine, for just before it was discovered first, 

He left the party under stress of hunger and of thirst, 

To cultivate a piece of land by order of the chief; 

And on that land, with sturdy effort and with stout belief, 

He raised the wheat Enrique needed to support his men; 

And vegetables and fruits for them, himself and children ten. 

Apolonio Valdez was long a miner and had served 
Apprenticeship in the Pachuca mines, and so deserved 
Consideration as a man who really knew his trade; 

Indeed he knew the way that veins and paying shoots were made. 

Ignatio Beltran was also miner, and in Spain, 

Had learned whate’er there was to know, about the way to gain 
The metals from their ores; and afterward in Mexico, 

Had studied the Pachuca process known as “patio.” 

Both these two founded families, now well and widely known, 
Throughout Sonora and Sinaloa, where their children grown, 

In after years were brilliant lights, and drew the social lines. 

And so Manuel Ruiz, as able engineer of mines, 

Would now be known; a most important member of the band; 

He understood all smelting ways, and how to measure land. 
Andres B. Talamontes, handy woodman of the trip, 


12 


THE VENTURERS 


Was born in Barcelona, and came over in the ship, 

In which the leaders came from Spain, and so did the Gordins, 

Two merchants in the mother country, men of solid means. 

And Pedro Valinzuela, one who came of Moorish stock, 

And left behind him off-spring, each of which begot a flock. 

Besides these tumbled into Enrique’s willing outstretched arms, 

The stranded ones, who came perhaps from Spain’s denuded farms, 
From every crowded and congested city of the land; 

Not all from the slums, by any means; for on the other hand, 

Were men who bore proud names at home, and those who rich had been, 
But coming to this strange, new world were those that could not win. 
No more than should have been foreseen. It certain was that some 
Would fall upon the way, nor did it frighten those to come, 

Nor quite dishearten even those, who’d spent their little all; 

For such the feeling of the pioneers, at pity’s call, 

Or just a spirit of indifference, or full belief 
In opportunities to obtain new start, they just as lief 
Be broke as not; yet ever eager for an opening anew, 

Whenever offered chance; and thus it was that not a few, 

Applied for places with Enrique, taking wildest risk. 

For only those who have no settled home on this rotating disk, 

Can jump right off to the end of the world at a moment’s cry, 

Or join a cause forlorn, or for a hazard dare to die. 

Enrique only wanted six to fill his quota full, 

And found it needful to discard the most, who used their pull 
To get the chance to go; but finally obtained his pick 
Of several dozen men; and none of these were hurt or sick, 

But toiled and labored on the way as only free hearts would, 

And anxious all to do their very best for the company’s good. 

Patricio Ramos, a merchant’s son from far off Santa Cruz; 

And Carlos Escobosa, brought up in Moorish Andaluz; 

Gregorio Munoz, who came from sculptured Valladolid; 

Roberto Silvas, many years agone from old Madrid; 

Jose Orosco came from soft and sunny Murcia; 

Nabor Pacheco, from the fruit encircled Malaga. 

All these together made a strong and merry company 
Of kindred souls inspired by kindred views of energy. 


THE VENTURERS 


13 


And each one had an interest in the outcome of the trip; 

For Enrique and Jose resolved before they left the ship, 

To make the venture purely business dealing, to the end 

That all might share alike in the risk, and they might none offend. 

To those of the rank and file, there was allotted one share each; 

Then to Ruiz, surveyor and engineer to smelt and leach, 

And Figueroa, chosen superintendent of the mines, 

Were granted two apiece, and not within the company’s lines, 

Were men who better earned their portions; while to each priest, 

Were set off three, because they kept the company’s books; at least, 
Accounts of money out; ’twas all there was at first to do, 

Besides their priestly ministrations for the daring crew. 

Enrique and Jose had taken ten shares each; with them, 

The burden of control abode, nor did a one condemn 

The arrangement, as these two had furnished half the needed cash; 

Whom neither argument, nor grief, nor danger could abash; 

The other half donated by a banker back in Spain, 

To whom fell ten good shares. Thus well between the cash and brain 
And labor were the shares distributed; to cap the sheaf, 

Five shares were given to the church to mark their confident belief. 

They counted on their rough work being done by native help, 

Of whom there were supposed to be enough; nor could a yelp 
Or two from some half savage race deter them from their course. 

For in addition to the hoarded gold and silver as a source 
Of wealth, to those who came in earlier days across the seas, 

They had the labor of uncounted tribes, like hives of bees, 

To use for nothing but their food, the which was often less 
Than farmers gave their horses in the realm of good Queen Bess, 

And poorer much in quality; and this as like as not, 

Was grown by them that did the work; their poor unhappy lot 
Being nothing short of slavery; in the mines they were confined, 

And shorn of liberty, and though they ever worked, they pined 
Away, and in a little time were gone; but making rich 
Their masters, while they lingered in decline; to such a pitch 
Of abject degradation were they finally reduced, 

That by consent of all, the few survivors were unloosed. 

Up to this time, the natives had been worked as private slaves, 


14 


THE VENTURERS 


But as the cruelties of the mines were filling countless graves, 

The King decreed such forms of subjugation should abate; 

And afterward the mines were worked, still at a healthy rate, 

By priests, ostensibly for funds, with which to build anew, 

The holy churches for the Indians; they were hardened too, 

And thus grew up a great theocracy, and when the King, 

Dismayed by wondrous finds of precious ores, declared a ring 
Usurped his royal rights, and that henceforth the desert mines, 
Should solely in his interest be worked, or pay hard fines, 

So great was the disgust, and fear of the King, that one and all, 

The private searchers, quit the game, and while this king-made wall 
Was vaulted oft by the church, with tacit or agreed consent, 

There disappeared the brave explorer’s distant, lonely tent. 

But then it was too late, the hurt had been already done, 

And of the tribes of the desert, there scarcely was a single one, 

Alive to tell the tale; and the few were women, whose labor pains, 
Resulting from the mingling of those many alien strains, 

Gave to the world a new and complex race who think and feel, 

With all the pride, intolerance and harshness of Castile, 

United to the plain credulity of the Indian folk; 

Now up in arms, now bending meekly to the galling yoke. 

Such varied ancestry, and such a fierce experience 
Produced a people of ideals and conceits intense. 

A race which centuries of serious work have scarcely tamed, 

And yet a race with able minds, and which will yet be named 
In history’s annals; a race most eloquent and most polite, 

Most patient in its wrongs, yet ultimately seeking right. 

The time our story runs, these things were not in full foreseen, 

And mankind, as it always does, so satiates its spleen, 

Unveils its face, contents its lust, in total disregard 
Of future needs, debauches every action, nothing barred. 

The next was victuals for the rovers on their dusty road, 

And carrying only real essentials, to assign the load 

That each should bear. This was no simple task, but was arranged 

So that the food was carried by one set of porters, changed 

For tools and bedding, clothes and other necessary things, 

Conveyed by other set of men; each, as he journeys, sings, 


THE VENTURERS 


15 


And later on the trail they make the arch of heaven resound 
With joyful cries, interpreted as songs, and spread around, 

Diffused contentment, which was good for all the alien troop. 

The porters being strange themselves, beyond the towering group 
Of mountains, which encased their native valley; and in fact 
Were stranger even than the Europeans who, in pact 
With friends, had journeyed far, and had experience of the ills 
Confronting them; and so were better fit to tramp the hills, 

And deserts than the natives; these though forced the road to take, 

Had rather far do this than slave at drainage in the lake, 

For there was certainty of more abundant food and rest, 

And they participated in the excitement of the quest. 

As when a herd of cattle leaves a clear, pellucid stream, 

And travels far to find a mud-filled hole, because they deem 
It somehow better; we, perceiving it, and thinking them 
Most foolish, yet their weary course we never try to stem, 

But with idle minds observe their ways, and hope that all things work 
Together for their good. Just so the Indians, in the murk 
Of ignorance, are watchful of the white men on their way, 

And trust their gods to explain their course, and lead them not astray. 
So having made supplies all ready for the human wain, 

The search began auspiciously for the Arizuma vein! 


16 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


BOOK III 

Describes the order of the wonder march in going out; 

To Tula, Guanajuato and the towns along the route, 

By Zacatecas, Sombrerete, and the swift Tunal, 

To calm Pacific’s pearly shores, through forests of nopal! 

One chilly day Enrique ordered all the company 
To come out early in the morning, and for all to be 
Along the plaza ready for the start by heat of noon. 

They came in straggling sequence, and when all were there, they 
Fell into marching order; as they passed along the vale, 

An Aztec porter with the train began his moaning wail, 

In which united all the Indians as they turned aw T ay 
From the city’s old and ruined walls, and still in view there lay 
The snow-clad mountain peaks, which standing sentinels afar, 
Had during all the life time of these men appeared a bar, 

To travelling beyond. Thus ran the Aztec’s sad lament: 

“O Mexitle! God of all! by whom the eagle once was sent, 

To point the hallowed spot for great Tenochtitlan’s high rise, 
Who hast watched over slaves of thine, and dost suffice 
For all our spiritual needs, and in thy wisdom hast given o’er 
Our lives to these Castilians, who have ventured to ignore 
Thy sanctified instruction, and upon us have imposed 
A trinity of Godhead, and where formerly we dozed, 

They now put grievous work upon us; Mighty God of all, 

Assist us with the patience to endure grim duty’s call, 

To do our work without revolt, however hard the press, 

To cool our rightous enmity, and thus avoid distress.” 

Thus to the air with woebegone and doleful cries of grief, 

The others echoing; but after interval quite brief, 

They lost their menacing intent, and passing then the trees 
Of mighty forests, where the axe-men cut out ribs and knees 
For the early shipping on the lakes, they soon became content, 
And bowled along the way with backs to burdens gladly bent. 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


17 


As when a child, the grief of ages in his brimming eyes, 

Gets comfort from his mother, while he loudly bawls and cries; 
Arising from a fall, in which he bruises both his shins, 

But soon assured no bones are broken, sheepishly he grins. 

Thus the unsophisticated Indians, sore bewailed their fate, 

But soon again grew merry, as the first grief did abate. 

And so they came along the narrow, winding woodland trail; 

For in those days majestic trees did all the land enveil; 

Of which but few now linger on Chapultepec’s fair slope, 

The ahuehuete that alone could with the centuries cope. 

Thus on to Tula, ancient seat of Toltec strength and pride, 
Where somewhat stocking up, the cortege did some days abide. 
This ancient place was then a town of much concern to all, 

Who had occasion to travel to the great plateau’s west wall; 

Not wholly hostile they, yet never conquered, were the Toltec race, 
Whose remnants could be met yet, over all the northern face 
Of Mexico, and by affiliations with the tribes 
To north, and likewise in their tongue, by even fleers and gibes, 
Exerted greater influence than all the others; and it was the aim 
Of Juan to get a few to interpret for him; as the fame 
Of Tarahumare and Nayarit, friendly Opata, 

And hostile Yaqui had come forth, and fierce Vishalika. 

Near Tula in the valleys shone the fields of golden maize; 

One lonely Toltec saw them; in the early morning’s haze 
He cried aloud: 

“ O Tlax! of all mankind the father good! 

For all this lovely land, the principal supply of food! 

The plumed and tasselled chieftain of the western hemisphere! 

Who grows in all localities, without a trace of fear! 

Whose yellow ears are destined to be food and drink as well, 

Of countless ages yet to come, as of those whose last knell 
Has long been sadly sounded! Life-preserver! Indian corn! 

Well known from Michigan’s great lakes down to the stormy Horn! 
O Friend of our dead Fathers, be our friend from birth to death! 
And we shall ever praise thy virtues with exultant breath!!” 

Thus chanted he! and as they passed along the rising way, 

The other Indians joined the song, and thus from day to day. 


18 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


Thus at Queretaro, the Otomie stronghold they arrived, 

Well tired but still with spirit left to enjoy the country shrived. 

It has been said that Don Fernando de Tapia was one 
Of the Conquerors, and with some Indian allies (he had done 
Them favors little while before), were sent to seize the town; 

And to their peace proposals the Otomie answered down, 

They could not fight with arms; perceiving the sheer uselessness 
Of bows and arrows in assaulting ironclad noblesse, 

But would forthwith put all to test in the unheard of lists, 

And hand to hand would fight it out, with nothing but bare fists. 

This offer was accepted, and so next day from early morn, 

To set of sun, the curious conflict raged, and then much worn, 

The dusky thousands of Otomies taking part in the fight, 

Threw up the sponge, and surrendered to the wondrous Spanish might! 
And taking their defeat in faith, that very night they joined the dance, 
In honor of the victors, and thus the victory did enhance. 

As w T ell becomes beginnings like to these, the place was known, 

As home of all fair play; and when misrule was later shown, 

The city was the cradle of independence, and from its gate, 

There radiated waves that finally engulfed the state. 

And here our party gathered opals from the gem-strewn rock, 

Among the lovely valleys; here continuous flowers mock 

The sun with their bright hues; continuous fruits their syrups form; 

Continuous berries crowd the plains and the savannas storm; 

Here Nature does her best to enrich a sweetly flavored place; 

And turns to hungry man, her smiling, dimpled, fat-lined face. 

Along these favored valleys trooped our daring cavaliers, 

For still existed at these distant points, to stir up fears, 

Small, isolated bands of natives, who by day and night, 

Were quick to pillage, fast to run, or bold and brave to fight. 

And in the wilder fastnesses were Indian tribes of size, 

Who came down from their keeps, assaulting with most frightful cries. 
But these steep hills brought forth no foes, and everywhere was peace. 
In coming days their premonitions for the time did cease; 

And so they came to Guanajuato’s yawning entrance door, 

The canyon’s narrow mouth, where waters leap and loudly roar, 

In hoping to escape the confining hills, and in the plains, 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


19 


To lose themselves upon the flattened soil; for after rains 
Great floods pour forth, and render comprehensible its name:— 
“The Place of Frogs,” and the city in their fury tear and maim. 

It should be called the place of money, for its rolling hills 
Have given to the world, tremendous sums, from many mills. 

But at this time, the excitement running high, the veins then found 
Were taken by the early comers, and there seemed no ground. 

On which to work their Indians; but in this they were in fault, 

As afterward the district proved a very treasure vault. 

And now the road ran down the canyon to the plains below, 
Across some fertile valleys, feeling now the touch of hoe, 

And cut of plow for the first time, as the uncultivated land 
Was being turned from cactus-covered slopes to corn-fields grand. 
And thence along the high plateaus, among the barren hills, 

Where lakes were stagnant ponds, and rivers were but trickling rills. 
Thus up to Aguas Calientes, with its thermal springs, 

Its climate unsurpassed, and fruits of which the poet sings. 

A perforated city, where some ancient clever hand 
Has excavated a labyrinth of caves beneath the land! 

These caves are shafts and tunnels in succession regular, 

To which nor Chichimecas nor the Toltecs from afar, 

Have in their annals any reference. A mystery yet, 

And shall be ever, till the hill to History pays its debt, 

This curious monument of lively prehistoric mind, 

Being now almost forgotten by the men who came behind. 

Tradition says that Alvarado fought a battle here, 

And was defeated, being forced to bury plunder dear; 

And such the courage of the tribes, the town was but a fort 
Against the Chichimecs, who waged war of relentless sort, 

On the Spanish conquerors; and, as they swarmed about the way, 

It was not safe to travel unprotected, even by day. 

From this time forth, the cavalcade went like a fighting host, 
With arms in easy reach; at night a watchful army post. 

Enrique and Jose here took the opportunity 
To trade some ugly men for those of more docility. 

Their men prospected here, but finding nothing worth the while, 
Were ready to go forward, towards the mountains, double file, 


20 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


A native and a Spaniard, linked together man with horse; 

And thus from out the fortress, they pursued their lonely course; 
Which soon led up from the great plateau to mountains just as great, 
The treasure-chest of miners, who were pointed out by fate, 

To harvest wondrous riches, from Dame Nature’s hidden store, 
Reclaiming gold and silver from the swelling heaps of ore; 

And as it came to pass, there was taken from this bounteous chest, 
Obese amounts of money, melting free at man’s behest. 

To Zacatecas, erroneously called the “place of hay,” 

Which should be called the “place of silver,” or the “place of pay”; 

To Zacatecas came our silver-seekers on their northern path, 

And just escaped the gage of battle thrown down in their wrath, 

By men from the Nayarit, and while they rested in the town, 

These Indians laid in wait for them, with hopes to mow them down, 
When they came out. So here they rested for the fray ahead. 

Enrique, joyful, then burst forth in song, and thus he said: 

“ 0 Silver fine! 0 Silver pure and chaste! 0 Silver bright! 

Of Gods the sacred ornament, of men the sure delight! 

And white thyself, thou comest from the mountain’s bowels black, 

To bless mankind and to relieve his sorrow and his lack; 

The mountain yields thee up, so mayst thou be in times of press, 

A solace to affliction, and a comfort to distress; 

Thus wilt thou be, as in thy color, so magnificent, 

That all who see thee, will rejoice that hereto thou wert sent.” 

Thus in ecstacy. And here they might have staid, but that they heard 
From straggling Yaquis, who had strayed from home, as flies a bird 
When searching food; ’twas of a land that was richer far in gold, 
Beyond the mountains, near the sea; great stories they were told. 

So girding up their loins, they made them ready for the march, 
Proceeding over dreary slopes in heavy winds that parch 
Their desiccated throats; to scan the wind-swept country, keen, 

For signs of natives on the war-path; yet all unforeseen, 

A hidden gulch was found to harbor bitter enemies, 

Who lurking and concealed behind the desert shrubs and trees, 

Allowed the foremost men to penetrate their ambuscade 
Before they showed themselves, and opened up a fusillade 
Of javelins and barbs, of monstrous rocks from upper ground, 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


21 


Such that the Spaniards and their men were fairly turned around, 
Before they could requite it with their murderous response. 

As when a mid-day hail storm fills the welkin for the nonce 
With icy pellets, all men turning from the fierce assault, 

And all unconsciously, with backs bent, coming to a halt; 

So now the little troop was sore beset by countless foes, 

And nearly overcome by the charge of never ending rows 
Of savages; and only the iron mail of the Spanish scout, 

And trappings on the horse prevented headlong, ruinous rout. 

But steadied from the foremost impact, they began to raid, 

And in their fury wild, so fierce an up-hill charge they made, 

As cleared the slopes and left the Indians dying everywhere; 

The rest disheartened by the fatal onslaught, fled from there. 

Mid flash of gun, and swirl of arrow, hiss of javelin, 

The clash of steel, and snorting horses adding to the din, 

It was a scene of horror, scarce experienced before, 

By any who took part. Jose performed great deeds, and tore 
His way through men as though they were but evanescent air. 
Enrique was ubiquitous, and full of acts so rare, 

That all applauded; while as hung upon it life and death, 

The others fought most strenuously, and with shortened breath, 
Until the field was strewn with helpless wounded, and with dead, 
The fleeing Indians filled with speechless wonder and with dread, 
For quarter was the last thing thought by those on either side; 
Immortal fates and mortal strength at once were there defied. 

To tell the deeds that day achieved, would sadden all who heard; 
So draw a veil around the scene, and let the tale be inferred; 

Suffice to say that while the Indians hung upon their flanks 
For days thereafter, they essayed no charge straight on their ranks. 
The Spaniards lost no troopers, and only two of the porters died, 
But many of the force were wounded, as such woes betide; 

And when night fell, they were without the rugged cut-up ground, 
And perfect safety on the treeless, wind-swept desert found. 

Not so next day, for as they travelled o’er the trackless plain, 

A growth of cactus sprang up on the otherwise inane 
And lonely solitude; nopal, with growth of glorious size, 

With round thick stems of bluish green, and leaves in needle guise! 


22 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


Nopal, with spines in place of leaves, and buds of yellow flowers, 
Which opened, are the desert’s diadem, the prize of hours, 

Most lovely of all blossoms, and the royal bloom indeed, 

Attractive to the eagle, and the birds in search of mead. 

Among the forests of nopal are found the yucca trees, 

Immense in size, and symbiotic with the moth one sees, 

About its cream-white flowers; remarkable in growth and foil, 

It dominates the other denizens of the sandy soil. 

So through this thorny forest, living on the gritty sand, 

They came to new Fresnillo, in the silver-bearing land; 

They lingered here but long enough to cure the wounded men, 

Which took them weary weeks, and then they faced the dust again. 
And on the rolling road, they forthwith piked along their course, 

To Sombrerete hills, of silver, also fruitful source. 

Their route lay by the bleak and barren uplands which are swept 
By dancing whirlwinds; home of many a curious plant; where slept 
Amoles on the slopes and in the lowlands great mesquites, 

Beneath the tropic suns; from under every stone there greets 
The careless traveller, a scorpion or alacran, 

From whose dire sting, there is but little hope for normal man. 

A puncture deep, and the worm’s swift poison runs along the veins, 
Until the heart it fills, and thence it furiously attains 
The furthest organs, bearing in its train paralysis 
Of all the parts; and if by goodly chance the vein it miss, 

At first attack, then four and twenty hours will perhaps relieve 
The dangerous symptoms, and a few weeks more will oft retrieve 
One’s usual health. But if with speed the venom circulates, 

God help the victim, for his hours are numbered, and the fates 
Have wound and cut his thread of life, and naught can intervene, 
Except the sacred cactus, the peyote, round and green. 

This cactus did not grow here; they made a yearly pilgrimage 
To central valleys for it; such debilitated age, 

Had all they could obtain, that Silvas died within the hour; 

The young Gordin a little longer lingered, like a flower, 

Then shrivelled up. His brother got his company share and hire, 
While that of Silvas went to Manuel by express desire. 

Munoz was bitten too, but a Nayarita tended him, 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


23 


And by her constant care his life she saved; at Death’s gray rim 
He swore that if a cure were his, he’d have her for his wife. 

And so it was; and Father Pablo joined them for this life. 

Among the bitten were a number of the packers tried; 

Of these but one recovered, and the rest impassive died. 

This caused delay and the stricken company were some days late, 

In passing through the hills on which the crown of silver sate. 

From Sombrerete they defiled among the hills, towards that, 

Of which they long had heard, Mercado with the iron hat; 

And at the base of this, the broad Tunal in rippling curves, 

Flows down forever, to enrich the happy land it serves. 

Here lies Durango, home of all the temperate fruits and grains, 

With celebrated grapes, and various legumes, due to rains; 

Tomatoes growing wild throughout the whole sierra group, 

And finest of tobacco, which appealed to all the troop; 

So much that when Enrique tasted it, he cried in joy: 

“ Tobacco is the stimulant, so new, so rare and coy, 

For which the world has waited patiently from earliest times. 
Tobacco it is clear prevents committing many crimes; 

It gives that resignation that will always cause to cease 
All acts of violence, and will be called the ‘pipe of peace,’ 

Whene’er its leaves are smoked. It gives endurance to the strain, 
Enjoyment to the taste, and brightness to the weary brain. 

And in the future, it will penetrate remotest lands, 

Unite in noble thought and helpful acts the nations’ hands.” 

He sent out word among the tribes to bring in all they had, 

And carefully they baled it into sacks for good or bad. 

The Rio Mesquital leads down from off the great plateau, 
Impetuously amid great mountain ridges, row on row, 

And peak concealing peak; a frightful awe-compelling place, 

That eats the courage of the stranger, be he of any race. 

That day they clambered over crags and falls, and towards the night, 
There lingered in the western sky a long blue line, first sight 
Of the ocean possibly; and as they walked from sleep to sleep, 

They soon passed down the sloping bed of the barranca deep, 

Until they surely saw Magellan’s broad expanse of sea; 

And in their gratitude to saint who brought them safely free, 


24 


THE GREAT PLATEAU 


They named the river’s lower course, San Pedro. Turning north, 

As soon as from the long barranca they could venture forth, 

They left the river at the “ place of rabbits,” called Tuxpan, 

And hastened up the shore to “place of deer,” or Mazatlan. 

These names suggestive of the many kinds of useful game 
With which the land abounded. And of more, the proper name 
They never knew; but one the pavo, called the royal bird, 

The brilliant turkey, they had learned to hunt and quickly gird. 

His royal plumage saved for ornaments, they then would eat 
The rich and juicy portions of the varied-colored meat. 

And many other birds they killed and animals unknown; 

But all seemed good; and easily they ate them to the bone. 

Thus fortunately they passed along the foot-hills, dented back, 

By many a narrow canyon, like a giant wrinkled crack 

In a sun-dried peach. And so progressed down to the narrow beach, 

Which near to Mazatlan, much tired, they finally did reach, 

And on the rocky coast, where seething waters loudly rave, 

In salty breakers, they their dusty, heated bodies lave. 

At Mazatlan, they long sojourned among the sugar cane, 

Upon their journey forth to hunt the Arizuma vein!! 


UP THE WEST COAST 


25 


BOOK IV 

At Mazatlan, sweet matrimony much involves the case, 

And then to Culiacan they come, the Athens of the race; 

To Guay mas and the placers of Altar, where gold is fine; 

But drying up, they search for well-dissembled Indian mine. 

Before they left the city, thinking they were nearly through 
Their tedious march, and lonesome thus, a number of the crew 
Resolved to wed. And with these heroes thinking was to act, 

And in their idleness they found the time to do; in fact, 

By great good chance, large numbers of the neighboring natives came 

To Mazatlan, to hold a grand fiesta in the name 

Of great Quetzalcoatl; and this event but spurred them on. 

Valdez encountered a Chichimeca, who desired a Don; 

Ruiz a Tlascalan woman suited to his honest taste; 

While Valinzuela chose a Tepehaune girl in haste; 

Patricio got an Opata; and amid the friends of all, 

The church performed her rites, and put them at each other’s call. 
That day was long remembered in the town of Mazatlan, 

And celebrated from the mountain town of Etzatlan, 

To far-off Nabagame. And with sticks of dried sotol, 

They beat the musical device they call the tawitol, 

And the whole company enjoyed the draughts of sweet teswin, 

A colorless concoction from the maize. From out the din, 

Were caught congratulations from the leading Spaniards there, 

Sincere felicitations from the natives everywhere; 

Because such intermarriage was a pledge of further lease 
Of friendly bonds, a giving hostages to future peace. 

From Mazatlan, the rested men proceeded up the coast, 

And tramped along the gentle slopes, at speed of which to boast. 

A fertile region too, but thinly farmed and sparsely cropped; 

That night in a sheltered valley by some cotton fields they stopped; 
And here Enrique, looking on the pink and yellow flowers, 

And bolls of useful hairs, thus gave his thanks to the heavenly powers: 


26 


UP THE WEST COAST 


“ O God! we thank thee, that in thy benevolent concern, 

Thou hast provided this great world with more than leaf of fern: 
And coat of skins, thou didst devise, when thou wert justly wroth, 
To cover naked man, is now replaced by cotton cloth. 

Thy wisdom did decree that the cotton plant should surely grow 
In every warmer clime, wherever it was needed so. 

For wild it grew in far-off Asia, and again the prize 
Is here indigenous, erecting lobed leaves to the skies. 

Quetzalcoatl, God of air, grew cotton of all hues, 

And taught its uses to his people; watered by his dews, 

Its growth is most prolific; thus we quilted breast-plates wear, 

And brilliant mantles, all of cotton, flaunt the air.” 

Thus pondered he, and all those with him joined the thankful chant, 
Desiring each, Quetzalcoatl’s great exploits to vaunt. 

Thence on, and as they journeyed further on, the tales of gold, 
Became more simple, more conclusive, and the men more bold, 

To brave the ills to follow. In this spirit every man, 

At last, with high-strung courage, came to the gates of Culiacan. 

O Culiacan! the Athens of the great Nahuatl race, 

From whence spread forth the gentle culture of the great bird face, 
Upon the body of a snake! Quetzalcoatl wise, 

The early genius of the race, Lord of the eastern skies! 

Designer of all husbandry, creator of the arts, 

Benign instructor in all good, and loved by human hearts; 
Accompanied by the subtile melodies of birds a-wing, 

By aromatic harmonies of scent, which flowers fling, 

By all the wonders and delights of brilliant feathers weird, 

Immense in size, with pure white skin, dark hair, and flowing beard. 

The Toltecs worshipped him, and carried south his culture pure, 
Until the white-winged pulque made their speedy ruin sure. 

And after them, with banners came the valiant Chichimecs; 

And following them, and seeking higher lands the Tepenecs; 

The Chalcas and Acolhuas, too, originated here, 

And carried Quetzalcoatl’s name in veneration dear; 

And then the sad Tlahuica and the brave Tlaxcalan swarm 
Enjoyed the exodus to mountain valleys high and warm. 

As when a hive of bees, long ruled by wise and healthy queen, 


UP THE WEST COAST 


27 


In lands well filled with honeyed flowers, with air, so pure and clean, 
Gives forth from time to time, a buzzing swarm of stout winged bees; 
These rise in air, and straightway seeking clumps of taller trees, 

Set out for new homes, higher always than the ones they quit. 

So rose from ocean’s brink, Nahuatl’s swarms, and always lit 
On higher ground; but as they left behind the peaceful shore, 
Quetzalcoatl soon became tradition; more and more 
Relied they on Tlaloc, the soil-enriching God of Rain, 

And on the Water Goddess, who together bore in train, 

The making of the crops, and store of food for worried man. 

But when at last, the Aztec swarm rose out of Culiacan, 

And started for the charming valleys of the great plateau, 

At length by zigzag, coming to the vale of Mexico, 

The route was crowded, and the better lands all occupied, 

And fighting oft was needed, as they were so oft defied; 

Their course became one strenuous war, and gradually belief 
In mild Quetzalcoatl waned, and right to live became a fief. 

Tlaloc and Water Goddess were left to those who till the soil, 

For stronger, more ferocious gods were raised up in the toil 
Of constant strife. The Aztecs soon (in war without remorse), 

Invented two, Huitzilopochtli, fearful God of Force, 

And Teoyao-miqui, Goddess of Death, with all her prey. 

They sculptured both on the same great stone. On which, his face one 
way, 

Is War, conceived by feathered arrows, and born with full arms, 

While faced the other way is Death with torture for her charms. 

Quetzalcoatl then was said to have journeyed far away, 

To be expected back when smiling peace had come to stay. 

And this tradition helped the Spaniard in his conquest rife, 

Because the tribes were weary of the constant loss of life. 

Indeed, America was found just in the nick of time, 

Before the Aztecs drowned all Mexico in bloody slime. 

And while the change of masters could not be perceived at first, 

And the earliest Spaniards were most sure to be forever curst, 

Be there just God in heaven, yet withal it was not long before, 
Enlightenment had journeyed here, and spread from shore to shore. 

But when our party came, the fear of War and Death as Gods, 


28 


UP THE WEST COAST 


Was wholly gone, and while their statue was concealed by sods, 

The worship of Quetzalcoatl, mingled with the creed, 

But lately told to them, contented their religious need; 

And as the Christians and their gentle faith were better known, 

The residents of Culiacan were yearly wiser grown. 

Proceeding hence, their course prolonged its hot and weary way 
Along the Gulf; no longer travelling in the heat of day, 

But at the break of morn, they took the road for several hours, 

And three hours in the evening’s cool; the mid-day, sleep devours. 

Up to this time the rains were ample, but as they went along, 

The spring rains grew more scarce; and this was more pronounced and 
strong 

The further on they came, and the bottom lands, which way behind, 
Had grown luxuriant tropic growths, are thin and sparsely lined, 

With lean sub-tropic plants, and now their way leads up the strand, 

And into regions crossed by tepid rivers, bedded deep in sand. 

The climate was superb, and sickness came not near the train, 

As plodding o’er the level stretches, they at last would fain 
Have taken rest. They met some peaceful natives as they went, 

And in their intercourse with these, they gave their trade a vent. 

One day they overtook an Indian cortege, which had passed 
Ahead some days before, and now upon a stream which cast 
Its waters with those of other streams to make a mighty flow, 

Had pitched their camp. Some friendly openings for Cupid’s bow 
Were offered; and Orosco fell in love with a Tumbar girl, 

While a ruddy Sinaloa damsel made Pacheco curl 

His beard with extra twists. The Fathers faced them to the east, 

And married them; that night they ratified with glorious feast. 

So passed they rivers, pretty fields, and clustered Indian huts, 

Denuded cliffs, and now and then a towering grove that shuts 
The light of heaven out. Over level ground their pace was quick, 

And dryer soil maintained saguaros and pitayas thick. 

Enrique, when he saw the startling growth of sixty feet, 

In these great cactus monsters, thus the plants arose to greet: 

“ O leafless trunks! 0 curious trees without umbragious top! 

0 giant of the wilds! 0 marvel of the desert crop! 

Thy flowers so winsome, and thy fruit delicious to the taste! 


UP THE WEST COAST 


29 


Thy flesh so white and sweet, thy water precious in this waste! 

O sentinel of God! the minaret of nature’s kirk! 

Thy shade is slender, but thy frame is strange and striking work!” 

While plodding on, the word was sent to all surrounding towns, 

To bring provisions to the train, where payment in rich gowns, 

In necklaces of beads, and showy trinkets would be made. 

For these and money, there was driven quite a thriving trade; 

And as the train was well supplied with articles enough, 

And bargaining was honest, they obtained without much huff, 

Whatever was desired. With maize and many kinds of fish, 

Pinole, well-made cotton garments, all the game they wish, 

Together with the stores they brought along from Mexico, 

The train lived well, and all went cheerful as a rooster’s crow. 

And so they came to Guaymas, hidden gem of the western sea: 

All those who’d passed through Cadiz, felt the similarity 
To that surpassing view; the waters were the same blue green, 

The sky was streaked with crimson bands, and blushed with turquoise 
sheen. 

But here the town was backed by noble mountains, lifting high 
Among the clouds, their rugged heads, from which fierce eagles cry. 

In early morn in sombre shapes from out the shades they rise; 

At burning noon, their bristling points and domes are browned like pies; 
But when the sunset glow illumines them, the tints of gold, 

Of crimson roses, and of their own cactus greens unfold, 

Such miracles of vision! and the most stupid of the train, 

Were animated by the scene, and wishing to retain 
Forever in their minds, the inspiring and romantic sight, 

They gazed and gazed, until cut off by darkening shades of night. 

And here they feasted on the fish, for which the bay 

Was famous, and the toothsome bivalves caught from day to day. 

So Guaymas they regret, but hopefully pursue their way, 

To where Sonora’s waters on the desert embogue. 

And here the hill of bells, of purest marble, white and cream, 

By its sonorousness has given name to state and stream. 

Here grew all kinds of plants, the land with sweetest fruits was bless’d; 
Beneath the arborous shade, our sturdy heroes took their sleepy rest; 
And here the tales of golden sands became so plain and clear, 


30 


UP THE WEST COAST 


That all excited were, to know the promised land was near. 

Thence by Tonuage, by Bacuachi, and Placeres rich, 

By Teocate and Tumaclacla, to the miner’s ditch 
Below Caborca, and creeping up the river to Altar, 

They followed always after a glittering and golden star. 

And in the various torrent beds, they worked and washed the sand, 

And counting o’er the stores of gold, they blessed the generous land. 
They measured out their hundreds, but the waters giving out, 

Were forced to leave the enchanting labor, with no doubt, 

They would return in short time to resume. So up the stream, 

They made their way, prospecting as they went. And in a dream, 

They came to Saric, where were native mills of rare designs, 

And buyers of the gold, and waved farewell to placer mines: 

“ O glittering gold! O yellow metal, that our spirits crave! 

Thou hast been placed in streams like this, beneath the rushing wave, 
For us to find in after years! In such a hot and sere 
Deposit, midst concealing sands, thou hast been buried here, 

And yet we hunt thee down! And just the same, when snow and ice 
Surround thee! We would use our wits and every known device, 

To lure thee to our hands! For thou art noble, thou art clean, 

And naught defiles thee, naught destroys thee, nothing makes thee mean, 
Except ignoble use! And so we search all countries o’er, 

And often as we see thy face, we wish to see thee more! 

Good-bye dear Gold! at present thou art safely held from men, 

But later we shall come to try our hand with thee again!” 

Enrique thus: for he was sad to leave sure wealth behind; 

And only dire necessity caused him to be resigned. 

But having heard at Saric, of some wonderful rich mines, 

Across the height of land, between the Gulf and Gila lines, 

And not so far away, he thought to prospect there a while, 

Where water was; and thus the time agreeably beguile, 

Until the rainy season came again. With all his force, 

He moved his camp, and after weary days on dusty course, 

He came to Tumacacori upon the Santa Cruz, 

And finding near a pool of water, he could safely use, 

At a place the natives of the region long had called Tubac! 

The sweetest water they had tasted since leaving Arivac! 


UP THE WEST COAST 


31 


He pitched his camp upon the lonely mesa near at hand, 

From which he could survey and prospect all the neighboring land. 
There were no Indians there; the nearest on volcanic flats, 

To westward of the river, where they’d excavated vats, 

Enormous in extent, to hold the infrequent water fall; 

With these were rock-made houses, round a natural rock wall; 

An amphitheatre of ancient and mysterious make; 

Impregnable position for a gallant foe to take. 

These Indians were uncertain from the first, and never ceased 
To annoy the Spaniards, and refused to join in friendly feast; 

But watched their goings from the heights, and when the chance arose, 
Embarrassed them. In spite of which, their having only bows. 
Prevented dire fatalities; though wounds were often had; 

In turn the miners took their vengeance, though it made them sad. 

Yet this did not prevent continued searching for the mine, 

These natives hitherto had worked. For they had silver fine, 

Of which they made their sacred ornaments and sacred tools, 

And used it to adorn their persons. It was against their rules, 

To show their wealth of metal, but some less cautious than the rest, 
Were apt to brag, and gaily laughed at the crazy Spanish quest; 
Insisting their supply was brought from lands unknown, to north. 

Such their persistence in this claim, that Enrique sallied forth 
With all his men, to hunt the near-by hills. For at this time, 

The treatment meted to the savages, was far from prime, 

Upon the great plateau. And all the others hearing this, 

Were quite resolved no mines be shown by them, in fell abyss, 

To plunge their lusty folk. So they prevarications weave, 

And seek ingenious ways to misinform and to deceive. 

This only spurred our heroes on, to search the mountains more, 

To find the spot from which the natives mined their silver ore. 

Such was their strong desire, be it for their welfare or their bane, 

That led them to persist in searching for the Arizuma vein!! 


32 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


BOOK V 

In this we learn of wondrous silver ore, without a mate; 

Of how the gallant leaders met their matrimonial fate; 

Of how the Captain of the mine retired, Pachuca’s gain; 

And thus unwittingly preserved tradition of the vein!! 

To make the most minute and certain search, Enrique first 
Divided up the band. With him were Ramos as well-versed 
In arts of mining; Talamantes, Lopez, also there. 

Jose had under him Quiroz, Gordin, Munoz, his share. 

While Figueroa captained Valenzuela and his mates, 

Valdez, the miner, and Orosco, whom the spinning fates 
Had given to the Tumbar maid. While to Ruiz were only left, 

Pacheco, Escobosa and Beltran, prospectors deft. 

Besides, each party had its native working complement. 

With all made up, in four directions the several parties went; 

One party being always left, to protect the camp from raids, 

Providing food for the absent, with the help of men and maids, 

And dressing up the tools. For now the work was something more 
Than handling sand. ’Twas rock work, leaving nerves and muscles sore. 
Though at the surface, the vein was usually very rich and soft, 

In passing down, it soon grew hard, quartzose and barren oft; 

And further down were richer streaks and bunches widening out, 

Until the vein passed in bonanza, and there was no drought 
Of precious metal, with a prince’s ransom in the ore; 

The which they gathered carefully and from wasting it forbore. 

For when the fecund womb of nature works in travail keen, 

To make creations worthy of her, she produces clean, 

Such prodigies of merit, that all must stand and look 

Upon her work with wonderment, not seeing the means she took, 

To make her fruit unique. And so with rich precipitates, 

As found in veins, whose intricate construction captivates 
The imagination, but the actual fashion of whose mold 
Is still a mystery, whose solution is a problem old. 


THE TUNNEL OF TFIE CROSS 


33 


And while we know that certain veins are rich enough to dare, 
The reason of this concentrated wealth we can not bare. 

To search for such was now the problem of the passing day: 
Enrique’s field for exploration to the eastward lay; 

Jose’s to northward; Figueroa to the south should go; 

While to the west Ruiz should prospect for the silver snow. 

Jose soon found some veins of ruddy copper and of lead. 

And Figueroa found the yellow gold in narrow bed. 

Ruiz found many veins of silver, gold, and lead, and zinc. 

While to Enrique was reserved the happy chance to sink 
Upon a ledge of silver ore, phenomenally rich, 

Located in the Santa Rita range, within a mountain niche. 

And this to one side of a pass (which ran the foot-hills through 
In crooked line), in lonely wildness lay. One of his crew 
Had talked one time with a well-disposed and friendly Papago, 
Who came with others there, as still they do in Mexico, 

To gather in sahuaro fruit. He claimed his father said, 

That he had heard from his ancestors, all these long since dead, 

Of rich and common native silver, which was found in mass, 
Within the mountain sentinels, that line this sinuous pass. 

He could not find the mine but pointed out the yawning mouth, 
Through which the passage lay; this opening to the sunny south. 
And showing this, he bade them bold and bravely seek and find; 
Relating many a marvelous tale of silver formerly mined. 

With this incentive great, Enrique split his band in two, 

And pressing up the pass, explored each vein, and each anew, 
Laboriously and carefully; and finding many veins, 

He searched for ore and water, being the time before the rains; 
The days the longest of the season, and the molten sun, 

Ascending in the cloudless sky, and after lurid run, 

Departing free from shades. The day one long per-fervent broil, 
Too hot for sleep, too hot for resting, and too hot for toil! 

And after days of this, Enrique cried in accents choice. 

And prayed to the blazing orb with charming and seductive voice: 

“O Sun! O Shining Ball! O fiery and consuming globe! 

That burnest up the clouds, and turnest yellow, nature’s robe 
Of trees and grass. That sendest out the dry and sere south wind 


34 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


To scorch the valleys, and to bare the hills of all that sinned 
Against thy grace, not laying up a store of drink for thee! 

Nor saving for thy summer use, the water in them free! 

Thou bringest in thy train, thy cherished and beloved concourse: 
The rattler, giving open warning at the canyon’s source! 

The Gila monster, ambling in its ruddy striped coat, 

Across the gravelled plains! The scorpion from its hidden moat! 
The centipede with ready sting, that man so oft endures! 

The round tarantula, with bite that music only cures! 

Mosquitoes and the buzzing flies, and a thousand insects more! 
The humming birds that flit from one to other honeyed store! 
The orioles a-singing in the palo verde trees! 

And the mocking-birds’ sweet vocalisms on the breeze! 

With the buzzards spreading lazy pinions in the blighting glare! 
And the pigeons’ long remembered mourning in the stifling air! 
When one says to his mate, so plaintively, “How dry! how dry!” 
“And sure it is! and sure it is!” the other in return doth cry! 

All these and more are in thy train, but shun thy noon-day path, 
And yet a mid-day blaze of flowers, on its bosom hath 
The sun-kissed land! Thy favorites, O Sun! are blooming here! 
The chollas and huisachis, with their bright hues gleaming clear! 
The datil with its drooping load of alabaster bells! 

The tall mescal with branching flowerets, like to clustered cells! 
The stout sotol, with tassels numberless upon its stalk! 

With hundreds more of cacti, that would be the constant talk 
Of any other land than this. These intimates of thine! 

O glowing sovereign! can alone withstand thy dazzling shine; 

And other things are wilting under thy devouring glance. 

The soil a parched and thirsty tract, and dusty phantoms dance 
In far mirage, and near-by flutter waves of heated air. 

That ruin eye-sight, and bring mankind to festering despair. 

O powerful fire! withdraw thy blazing beams a little while, 

And leave us grateful shade, our weary senses to beguile. 

Or send the lowering clouds to intercept thy burning rays, 

And so relieve the enervating ardor of these days! 

For thou art fierce and headstrong in this desiccating time, 
Although the welcome comfort-giver of a colder clime. 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


35 


Supreme creation of the great creator, and again, 

Long worshipped as a God, thyself, by reverential men! 

Why not by men! when all thy subjects on the mountain brow, 

Rise up at thy approach, and to thy Godly glory bow! 

Have mercy on us! drive thy chariot with tightened reins, 

That time may hasten on and bring the time of saving rains.” 

Thus to the lord of day; then wearily to the work at hand, 

Which soon began to prosper, as they neared the height of land. 

For all the lodes were rich, and broke right out on top with pay, 

The only difficulty being the surfeit of the way. 

They worked on these, until they found one richer than the rest, 
Which they decided after trials oft must be the best. 

On this they did preliminary work, and quickly found 
Great masses, native, of brute silver, running under ground 
In wild profusion. And when they felt that luck was in their hands, 
They sent for all the working men, called in the scattered bands, 

And started mining regularly; waiting in the pass 
Enrique thus apostrophized the shining lumpy mass: 

“ O rock bound metal, whom we look for all the land about, 

And having found, we haste from thy retreat to cut thee out, 

To serve us as utensils, and as money clear and bright! 

Quite fit to please Almighty God, and every man delight! 

Yet here thou art imprisoned in the mountains’ earnest clasp, 

That we must break to let thee loose, and get thee in our grasp. 

But even here we recognize thy merit and thy worth, 

And labor hard to get thee, mourning thy unhappy dearth. 

O Silver white! O Silver bright! O Silver chaste and pure! 

Be thou to us a mascot, not a mere misleading lure!” 

Thus to the senseless clod, but soon the companions drawing near, 
The work began in earnest, with a heart up-lifting cheer. 

And first, to make the camp, a village of their own design; 

Selecting out a nearly level station near the mine, 

They picked up all the stones, and made them into rough laid walls, 
Surrounding quite a space, in several well-defended halls. 

This to protect them from marauding tribes, who came that way, 

As well as from their laborers, who might be led astray, 

Or tempted by their weakness, and their distance from all aid; 


36 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


The outer walls preserving all from wild men’s furious raid; 
While inner barriers were erected to guard the scanty knights, 
Who else might perish in a struggle with the sturdy wights; 
When taken off their guard; or be ambushed in the rocky pass; 
Or overpowered in the night and cruelly slain en masse. 

So round them all, they raised a rampart tall and strong, 

To shield them from attack from outside, and from inner wrong. 

And now took place the last act of a smiling comedy; 

From which emerged these Benedicks in joyful gayety. 

For Lopez and Quiroz were married with two Seri maids, 

Who with the train had come; induced by lively serenades 
To join their futures. Figueroa at the same good time, 

Was married to an Aztec girl in her bewildering prime; 

And her he later took to old Pachuca’s breathless height; 

Where afterward they both were buried on the hillside bright. 
Gordin, the erstwhile merchant, had been making lover’s eyes, 
At a Yaquicita in the train; and answering sighs to sighs, 

They now were also married. Just before this time, there came 
To join the camp, with food to sell, some Papagoes by name; 
For the final station of the long-travelled and tired band 
Was in the lofty mountains of the Papagueria land. 

Among the Papagoes, were many maidens of right age: 

Beltran and Talamantes, both alive, took up the gage; 

And Escobosa stormed the lists, and all were joined at once; 
While all the camp rejoiced, and celebrated these great stunts. 
This was a clever move, for ever since the Papagoes, 

Have been a friendly tribe to white men, saving many woes. 

Among the women of the Indians was one, a maiden fair, 

A dainty little pearl from some far coast, a captive rare, 

Who had been taken in a former war, by warriors bold, 

And held by them to ransom, in accord with rules of old. 

Some years she dwelt in safety, in the cabin of the chief, 

And now she met the bearded strangers with but little grief. 

Jose Figueras, seeing her, was at the first love-struck, 

And after more acquaintance, blessed his never-failing luck, 
Which brought her to him; she at sight of him fell fast in love; 
And so they married, being doubly blessed by heaven above. 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


37 


Rejoicing marked the marriage of the six; but that was naught 
To what took place when these were married; there was not a thought, 
But blessed their future; she so quaint and sweet and he so brave, 

That all might of his prowess boast, and of her beauty rave. 

When these festivities had taken place, then busy all, 

Within the mine; and though the sun was hidden by the wall 
Of solid rock, they used great torches made of yellow pine, 

To guide the work, and haste the opening of the bulging mine. 

The light there made by flaming torch was scarce so bright in hue, 

As that the glistening silver threw off when exposed to view. 

And having satisfied them of the richness of the lode, 

They made all ready for the working steadily. As a goad 
To rapid work, the sparkling nuggets of the metal white, 

Are constant in their urging, and as constantly invite 
Their stoutest steadiest labor. 

So for many a busy year! 

By working diligently, they acquired arrobas dear, 

Of very rich and valued silver, gold and copper ore; 

And fast as opened they the lode, the bigger it, and more 
They placed in sight. From shafts, from stopes, and tunnels they 
removed 

Large quantities of ore, and yet the quality improved; 

And far as they by unremitting labor, way had earned, 

They neither width, nor depth, nor length of this great mass discerned. 
Of shining stringers, wires, and chunks of native silver found, 

There was abundance, and to profit these did all redound. 

Some very weighty pieces were cut out and brought to store, 

While others, greater still, were left within the copper door. 

This copper door was brought from the copper mines of Inguaran, 

In sections; hammered out by tireless natives, gray and wan, 

In the light of the flickering fires by which they pounded out the bars 
Of copper in the hamlets; and by the light of twinkling stars, 

And mid-day sun, they packed the plates across the continent, 

By orders of Enrique. So the packers came and went, 

Well loaded with the packs of silver from the tunnel free, 

To take in turn to Mexico, for shipment o’er the sea. 

The copper plates were riveted together stout and strong, 


38 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


By artisans among the miners; and these same had long 
Been fashioning a glittering cross of silver white and pure, 

Which likewise to the copper door, they fastened firm and sure. 

This door was set in the yawning opening of the tunnel grand, 

From which were drawn the richest ores, and by the working band, 

Was commonly referred to as the tunnel of the silver cross, 

But on the company’s books, and in reports of mining boss, 

Was known as the tunnel of the copper door. And from this door, 
There came forth stores of riches in the stream of Luna’s ore. 

The company prospered, and several of our ancient friends took care 
To settle on the river bottoms having sold their share. 

And others still had gone to prospect in remoter hills; 

While Juan, the packer, and the blacksmith, Lopez, with the bills 
Of silver sacks, and crew of packers pushed along the coast; 

Returning with provisions for the camp; and ’twas their boast, 

That nothing yet was lost by them. And with their Seri wives, 

And children, marching with them they were leading happy lives. 

And Father Idlefonso had settled down to spend his days 
In caring for his new-found charge, and helping mend their ways. 

And brave Jose, with the gentle-mannered maid of unknown birth, 

In no wise mourned their isolation, nor the painful dearth 
Of pleasures and of social joys, but their children reared 
To cheerful lives of labor, and by them in turn were cheered. 

Enrique, though, and Father Pablo were not quite content; 

The latter still along the paths of duty daily went, 

But dreamed old dreams of bishoprics; while thus Enrique spoke: 

“ O mine of mines! these sacks with silver thou dost yearly choke! 
Much money thou dost pour into our pockets; and in time, 

Wouldst fair enrich us all together; still thou dost not rhyme 
With dainty, charming maidens, nor with all-consuming love, 

Which come not from the drifts beneath, but from the heavens above. 
And while thou hast the power to charm our spirits to delight, 

Some other charmers are to thee as blazing day to blackest night. 

And as I stand here, looking out upon the married joy, 

That quite surrounds me, I begin to seem a gilded toy, 

Which has been placed upon a golden shelf, within plain view 
Of happiness it is forbid to share; this feeling new, 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


39 


Affects me oddly, leaving me to other passions cold!” 

Thus cried Enrique! knowing not it was the story old. 

So he, Jose, and Father Pablo took the road to go, 

And visit for a little, ancient friends in Mexico. 

While there Enrique met in the viceroy’s palace charming maids, 

And as he made a gallant showing in the cavalcades, 

And in the tests at arms, he soon attracted some respect 
From them. But chiefly one, whom in his turn he did elect 
To follow and admire. She also seemed at once to feel 
That kindred and acute sensation for the man of steel, 

Who came like conqueror from the north; and after sighing so, 

They made it plain to all, and to each other, Cupid’s bow 
Had sped its feathered arrow to a vital cordate mark. 

And so they loved! 

Her hair was like the blackbird, shining dark! 
Her eyes were just the shade of the chestnut-throated wrens! 

Her cheeks absorbed the colors of the humming-bird’s gay pens! 

Her lips were like the cardinal! her throat like whitened dove! 

Like scarlet tanager, her color deepened when in love! 

She had the slender fabric of an orchard oriole! 

And she could dance as gracefully as any warbler soul! 

And so, Enrique always called her “ charming human bird,” 

To whom he gave his very best in deed and cheering word. 

They married! And the mine, to which they went, no longer claimed 
His first regard; while they lived happy in the cottage framed 
For their express delight; and here their offspring in due course, 

So filled their thoughts, they all demands on happiness endorse. 

Now Figueroa’s Aztec wife was daughter of a chief, 

Who once had worked the obsidian mines to old Pachuca’s grief, 

And she was homesick for her native hills, and so at last, 

The sturdy miner took his babies down, and anchored fast 
In her old home. And there he prospered also in his line, 

And his renown as Captain of the Arizuma mine, 

Was with him to the end. For they both lingered but a while, 

And soon rejoined the Indian Chief, and in that rocky pile, 

They both lie buried. And with grief they all received the word. 
Which flitted through the hills, from vale to mountain, like a bird. 


40 


THE TUNNEL OF THE CROSS 


The way correct intelligence passes thus from tribe to tribe, 

Has always been incomprehensible to alien scribe; 

It seems to rise up like a bee, high in the crystal air, 

And having got its course, go straight to hive without a care; 

And thus it was at Lupe’s death; the news came fast and true, 

As if it rose above Pachuca’s heights, and from the blue 
Dropped down:—that he had left his babies and his swollen wealth, 
To younger sisters in the capital, who, during health, 

Should administer the trust, and pass along with all its gain, 

The fortune wrested from the wondrous Arizuma vein. 


THE MINE IS LOST 


41 


BOOK VI 

And here we sadly chronicle the loss of all our friends, 

Who in mysterious ways were answering God’s unfathomed ends; 

The saving of the little ones to propagate a race, 

And raise up civilized communities in proper place. 

But now there came a sinister report from out the waste! 

’Twas of a savage race that loved the smell and taste 

Of blood, who looted everywhere and killed to seven times seven, 

Without discrimination; thus destroying mercy’s leaven, 

Which had begun to spread throughout the wandering native tribes; 
And neither age nor sex, nor illness, nor the highest bribes 
Could stay their hand. Faint rumors coming from the desert drear, 
And no one knew from whom, by whom they came; but settled fear 
Spread round about the desert springs. And first the seekers keen, 
From distant hills, apprised by subtle hints and actions mean, 

Gave way to haunting fear, and finally came into the camp, 

Which stood as fort to hold up civilization’s flickering lamp. 

And those companions, who had taken farms along the brooks, 

Now took alarm from friendly natives, who with sullen looks, 

Were just escaping from the fierce war-parties of the foe, 

And with their families crowded in, thus concentrating woe; 

Until at last were gathered in, the whole remaining troop, 

That once had been together there; except the little group 
That rested in the churchyard on Pachuca’s glassy hill; 

And all were banded for compact defense for good or ill. 

There had been shipped of ore enough to buy all needed fare, 
Necessities and comforts both, and Figueroa’s share; 

This figured at Six Hundred Twenty Thousand ounces fine, 

Had been sent forward to Pachuca, when he left the mine. 

Another shipment had been sent to the partner back in Spain, 
Enough to set him up, beyond desire for further gain. 

And there were now tremendous sums of silver and of ore, 

Not yet sent out, but treasured up behind the copper door, 


42 


THE MINE IS LOST 


Amounting to ounces by the million, and to ship this sum, 

Was problem serious enough to strike their senses numb! 

But they prepared a shipment rich, to load the packers all, 

And were to start the following day, at hoot-owl’s morning call; 

That night a hunter, bagging pigeons on the river’s course, 

Reported his way obstructed by the savages in force. 

A frantic warning! passed around called in the men outside, 

And hurried preparations then were made, as each one vied, 

With others to create defenses better than the ones 

They had before; and doing this, they built with tons and tons 

Of rock, such towering ramparts, raising walls unscalable, 

And strengthening so their weakness, that all was made impregnable. 
And none too soon! For they had just completed this defense, 

When there appeared the van-guard of the enemy, hot and tense, 

And ready for the slaughter, and eager for the coming fray; 

Before two days an army round the beetling rampart lay; 

Besieged were they; and like the immortal siege of ancient Troy, 

An opportunity for action was a source of joy 
To both besiegers and besieged. Not yet did sapping fear 
Their courage over-ride, and just as Trojans then did rear 
Their boastful pride on high, just so these brave defenders deemed 
The mine above victorious attack, as old Troy seemed. 

And so it was as far as storm and press of bold attack 
Could be foreseen. The walls were solid, and from front to back, 
Afforded such design, that none could scale its dizzy height, 

Nor enter there without a traitor’s help; while in full sight, 

The few approaches lay. The force besieged felt quite secure, 

And as the foe lacked guns, were not compelled themselves to immure, 
Behind the frowning walls, but on their crest defiance made, 

And bitter insults daily hurl at the foe, and daily raid 
The scattered Indians on the crests; for having arms to fire, 

They clear the jagged points in sight, and with destruction dire, 

They visit the besiegers. These soon learn to keep afar, 

Without the range of guns, and make of all the rocks a bar. 

But after many weeks of this, the companions felt the want 
Of wonted food, and rations were cut down; while many a taunt 
Passed over intervening crags from one to other side. 


THE MINE IS LOST 


43 


But ammunition being scant, the troop with Indians vied 
In feats of nerve and valor, ever hoping thus to awe 
The other side, or weary them beyond their strength, or draw 
The venturous spirits into reckless and incautious deeds, 

And thus by stratagem to cut them off; like vigorous weeds. 

That grow in cultivated gardens’ depths, without a check or stop, 

Until they thrust their heads in daring view above the crop; 

So, many of the combatants were worried out of breath, 

And not a few of either side, were gathered in by Death. 

While Famine stared at those inside, until her features grim, 

Were known too well by them; by earnest prayer and solemn hymn, 
They kept their courage up, until the news was hurled to them 
By boasting foemen, who around the frowning walls did hem 
A fringe for Famine’s sallow robe, that food was now cut off, 

By the death of all their friends outside. While at this word they scoff, 
As day fast followed day, and none appeared to bring them food, 

They must perforce believe, and see the brink on which they stood. 

And once convinced of this, they set about to make escape, 

Deciding on a sortie as an outlet from the scrape. 

But first in case of mal mischance they tried to hide the ore, 

By sinking in a winze, which now had water to the floor 
Of the lower tunnel. Down they emptied silver ore by tons, 

Thus quite securely hiding it from all the Indian Huns! 

To make the certainty more certain, over silver bed, 

They several feet of worthless rock in great confusion spread, 

To seem like natural work, and thus deceive their pressing foes, 

And cut the chance of losing it from all their other woes. 

Disguising thus their mining work within the glittering mine, 

They afterwards prepared to sally forth and break the line 
Of grim besiegers. Their provisions were so few by chance, 

And no supplies were coming up from all that vast expanse, 

Consuming fear fell on them, and to other spectres wan, 

Starvation adds her grinning teeth and never would be gone. 

It was resolved that all the men should issue, boldly led, 

To break the line of savages across the gorges spread, 

Divert the warriors by a rush, to eastward for a ruse, 

The women and children meanwhile fleeing to the Santa Cruz. 


44 


THE MINE IS LOST 


This worked out as planned, and when the men had marched to east, 
The foe with all their forces followed them. For so at least 
It is believed, for none of either side were ever seen 
By any one again. ’Twas thought that fighting straight and clean, 
The miners led the savages across the mountains drear, 

Until they came out on the other side; and all in fear, 

The savages of arms, the miners of too close approach; 

And going on and on, they so much blood in torrents broach, 

That finally no faintest trace was left of either side, 

In all that desert country, stretching eastward far and wide. 

Meanwhile the women and children went in furious haste, 

Adown the canyons leading straight across the mesa’s waste, 

Thus to the Santa Cruz, which flowed beneath its sandy bed, 
Uncovered only at the water-holes; and up this fled, 

Upon their way to southward; passing over rocky crest, 

And down the sunny side to the land of plenty and of rest. 

With little food to eat; on rations all to save the young; 

And pausing only at some casual water, hid among 

The canyon’s mighty boulders, they at last in trepidation dire, 

All goods abandoned long ago, perceive a friendly fire. 

But here alas! there gathered but a part of the fleeing mass, 

Bewailing many deaths from such a rough and cruel pass; 

And even after reaching safety, numbers more succumbed 

To the hardships of the trip, their minds and muscles both benumbed. 

Their sufferings became a proverb, and their escape an act, 

Direct, of Merciful God; and having suffered so they made a pact, 

To nevermore invade that dangerous and unlucky land. 

A resolution easier kept, because some flying band 
Of savages was rumored to be carrying torch and knife, 

Consuming everything, and cutting off all human life. 

Thus grew to weight of law, a solemn superstitious fear, 

Of all that northern country, which persisted many a year, 

Until all those who ever knew the place had passed away, 

And nothing but a vague tradition then remained to say 
The fairy tales of treasure hidden in the far-off mine; 

The glories of the march; the sorrows of the siege; the line 
Of worn-out women and children, coming back to lasting grief; 


THE MINE IS LOST 


45 


The parting of the warriors, so mysterious and brief. 

Thus hovered o’er the land for long, a black and lasting pall, 

That kept away the curious idlers like a fortress wall. 

Thus Father Time in flight unreeled a century or so of years, 

And other generations had forgotten both the smiles and tears 
Of this long passed adventure. / 

The women who escaped the siege, 
Were forced to take new husbands, each to some new man a liege; 
The children, orphans all, were parcelled out to kindly ones, 

Who undertook their culture; before the rise of many suns, 

They all were cared for; and from them sprang up the families great, 
That since have filled some leaves of history in each northern state. 
And while they must have some tradition of the wondrous lode, 

So little pains were had to keep a record of the road, 

That all true guides to find the mine were lost; not an ounce of ore, 
Is known, that came from the bonanza behind the copper door. 

When Figueroa died, he left enormous wealth behind, 

And this was trusted to his sisters, by the will he signed. 

They lived in Mexico, and there were taken all his goods. 

Among them being long accounts of his journeys through the woods, 
The deserts and the mountains, to the Arizuma ledge; 

Which lacking fullest details, yet still offered opening wedge 
To earnest seekers for the mine. But these were hidden well, 

In Figueroa’s boxes, which were piled up in an ell, 

Attached to northern side of the ladies’ house; 

There to remain unopened, and the home of many a mouse, 

For years to come. These ladies in the course of time’s concern, 
Went to their eternal resting place, and after them in turn, 

Went others of their race. And while the wealth the mine produced, 
Persisted in the family; and the house from which were loosed 
The precious manuscripts remained as staunch as e’er of yore 
No longer known was the mine that yielded the bonanza ore. 

Thus passed from history, and from minds of men, so quick its wane, 
The tragic wonders of the ill-starred Arizuma vein. 


46 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


BOOK VII 

The curious train of happenings that caused a man to find 
The Figueroa manuscript, long passed from owner’s mind; 

How two wars brought about its resurrection, first of all, 

And later its deciphering by a youth in old New England hall!! 

From lowland Vera Cruz to lofty city, Mexico! 

The road, upclimbing from the sea to the inclosed plateau, 

Has witnessed many a valiant deed of soldiery and war, 

Perhaps of evil, coming out of some Pandoran drawer, 

Likewise of good, though rarer hap. Here held the threatened ways, 
The prehistoric Indians; here kept inviolate all days, 

The runners of the Aztec chiefs, with letters for their Prince; 

And hardly stouter acts have on this road been mentioned since; 

Here Cortez in his early struggles showed himself a man 
Of brave impetuosity, and a sterling partisan. 

But never passed along this road, a force with sterner leaven, 

Than in the long past year of Eighteen Hundred Forty Seven, 

When General Scott, w T ith his immortal, but unequal force, 

Began a new anabasis upon the famous course. 

And during this eventful summer, in that heated clime, 

Great wonders were performed, renowned since then, throughout all 
time. 

For never has so small a host, against a powerful race, 

Maintained successful war in modern times; and such a pace 
They set, as may not be repeated in the years ahead, 

Nor equalled in all history’s stories of such glorious dread. 

With army, if a force so small an army can be called, 

In two parts cut, and reinforced, and cut again, and stalled 
In lonely mountain pass, until new forces can be brought 
From the distant mother country; army! ever seeking nought 
But duty stern and painful. Broken only now and then, 

By Humor’s intervention, as when Xalapa gave the men 
A chance to play the national American base-ball, 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


47 


With Santa Anna's wooden leg, which he in haste let fall, 

Escaping from the field. 

This great illustrious demi-God! 

The hero of my boyhood’s lessons! who in battle trod! 

All lands, between the Nueces and uptorn Tehuantepec; 

From deserts wild to plazas where the olive women deck 
Their forms superb with jewelry; and the men have fought and fought 
Throughout the land, in internecine strife, but always wrought 
To aid the cause of liberty, and with Santa Anna bled, 

Or in the ranks against him, struggled till the most were dead. 

While Santa Anna, careless, but a patriot at heart: 

Bombastic in his public talk, but quick a war to start: 

Courageous in his actions, witty in his formal speech; 

Though turbulent in his martial spirit, he was prompt to reach 
Decisions for his country’s freedom; fighting Spaniards oft, 

From Independence days; the English ships with flags aloft; 

The French he fiercely fought on sea and shore, and held his own; 

And many times was fighting for his country all alone! 

With us he fought and always made his lively presence known. 

Until at last he died, to patriarchal age well grown. 

He shines upon the mottled pages of his country’s life, 

A brilliant torch! a shooting star! a superman of strife! 

But this time he was met by foe too much alert for him, 

And though he made remarkable advances, fighting grim, 

With General Taylor first, and then with General Scott; 

He failed with both, and beaten, he bewailed his sorry lot. 

When Cerro Gordo had been fought, the die was fairly cast; 

The few Americans remained at Puebla, keeping fast, 

Until the reinforcements could arrive; they then pursued 
Their sharp contested way along the much-worn road, endued. 

And then, the little army came to the city’s last defence, 

And captured it by several storming onsets, fierce and tense. 

A valorous defense was managed by our wounded souls, 

Who, left behind in Puebla, kept up midst funereal tolls 
From hostile churches, an agonizing conflict, hard and fast, 

With Santa Anna, who thus sought retrieve from fateful past. 

Then General Scott reviewed his weary host within the town, 

The wounded nursed, and buried the heroic dead, and settled down 


48 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


To make a treaty, to secure a firm and lasting pact; 

Which has remained inviolate to this late day in fact! 

But this took weary months; and while he watched for warlike ruse 
One Sergeant David Stout would form his force, and thus would muse 
“Oh War! Oh cruel, devastating War! Iniquitous 
In all its phases! Bane of civilization! Nefarious! 

The infamous tool of wicked trouble-makers, grafters bold, 

Who seek to injure human rights for sake of gain of gold. 

Though war has been a trade to poverty-stricken venturers, 

And looting, sack and robbery by conquering plunderers 
Has been a common thing; these now are not allowable; 

The massacre of enemies is no longer thinkable, 

The seizure of the private lands, thank God, is of the past; 

And notable extensions of the reign of law, are fast 
Receiving universal acceptation. Titles much 
Esteemed, because conferring popular distinctive touch, 

To Captains of successful war, are now of little worth, 

And new and fine traditions have had their illustrious birth 
From educated concepts, forced on thinking, living, minds 
By sad experience of ages; so-called glory blinds 
A few eyes yet, but change has come, and War’s grim features rage 
No more sublime, but wizened with the ravages of age. 

And yet there has been, and there will be, just and honest war, 

In self-defense, or other righteous things worth fighting for! 

And sometimes surely war is fought for high ennobling aims, 

Though nations fierce contending, advertise conflicting claims. 

A curious trait of nature, is when one side to the fight, 

Has worked its feelings to the point that it alone is right; 

The other too, imagines it is battling for its life; 

And yet to all onlookers there is naught to warrant strife. 

At best but one is in the right, where any right is found, 

And a people by unreasoning terror or wrong teaching bound, 

May start on any ground outrageous war, which needs must force 
The nation thus assaulted to adopt defensive course; 

Or may revert to savagery at any time, 

From which it takes a century or two again to climb! 

For the great heart of a powerful nation is as easy fooled 
As any individual, at least when subtly schooled 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


By popular officials; right belongs it seems to each, 

And this a pliant church and venial press unite to preach! 

And so it well behooves a nation, seeking higher way, 

To be prepared for war, and in this spirit never stay 

From strengthening its ramparts for defence, and never cower, 

That gentle attitude may not entirely hide its power! 

For War no longer is a trade where Glory waits on Chance, 

But fierce machines and engines downright misery enhance! 

The price includes the torturing pains of serious bodily ills, 

The anguish of the feeling spirit with pathetic thrills, 

All sorts of wounds, disease in varying forms and sudden death, 

And finer sensibilities consumed by the fiery breath 

Of this fierce juggernaut; this one but lingers in the hopes 

Of death, and that one in the throes of lifelong sickness mopes, 

This one has lost a limb; this one insane; and this is blind! 

And stark calamity for dependent families behind! 

These last are lucky if they can be kept together still, 

And not entirely dispersed. For while, in olden savage drill, 

The rural dwellers left their families on parental farms, 

Where they could till the land, all safe from war’s acute alarms; 

But now, recruits are drawn from city streets by conscript laws, 
And with the price of food, and rent to pay, it gives one pause, 
Before he argues strong in favor of embroiling men 
In useless wars. For what becomes of war-made widows then? 

Of orphan children, thrown upon the inhospitable highways! 

Walled up against all pity; blotted out the Sun’s warm rays? 
Reduced to factory and sweat-shop, exposed to famine’s wrath! 
Such fearful straits are Glorious War’s inglorious aftermath!” 

He so soliloquized; meanwhile they camped within the gates, 
Where watching an unruly populace between these dates, 

They held the army, and the officers were quartered round. 

A subaltern from New York and Sergeant Stout were later found 
In the sturdy mansion that the Figueroa ladies left behind. 

They two became quite interested in a curious find 
Of books and manuscripts, amidst the miner’s boxes there; 

They delved among these dusty relics, with much thought and care, 
And being studious men, of rare discernment, though not learned, 
They welcomed such a chance, the curiosity that burned 


50 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


Within them, to fully satisfy. The house was fine in site, 

And central, but the notes were buried from the light, 

Within a lot of rotten boxes, that had served their day, 

And now were past repair, and going thus in fast decay. 

They might unearth some hoary legend, or some story old, 

Not thinking true adventures of the ancients to unfold. 

But these mouse-nibbled papers were so difficult to read, 

That little progress made they, nor had they the time they need, 

For such a task. The Sergeant bought the lot to carry back, 
Intending them to study, when of time there’d be no lack. 

So some time later, when the force of occupation, small, 

Was finally withdrawn from Montezuma’s princely hall, 

These soldiers boxed the musty Figueroa notes anew, 

And sent them down to Vera Cruz, to dare the ocean blue. 

They came to Boston, and from there, to village in the hills; 
Attracting some good-natured comment, giving little thrills, 

Because they came so far. But otherwise were noticed just 
As any other curious trinket rescued from the dust 
Of unknown Mexico, to which all eyes had lately turned, 

In hopes of seeing mysteries, not otherwhere discerned. 

But when the first attention naturally turned dull and cold, 

The papers were again interred in the raftered attic old, 

And so remained ordained as long-forgotten buried lore; 

The old New England homestead was their home forevermore. 

The older fashioned attic, which reposed in gloomy state, 

Beneath the gambrel roof, that loomed above the open gate, 

In early summer morn, and from whose overhanging eaves, 

The dripping water shimmered through the adolescent leaves 
Of ancient oaks, that on this spot had grown to puberty, 

Before the advent of the white man; and were guardedly 
Protected from the later ills, their youth had never known, 

And now o’ershadowed house and gravelled walk and lawn, oft mown. 
Beneath the spreading roof, with floor rough boarded on the joist, 

And rafters unconcealed by plaster; now and then quite moist, 

Where leaks were sprung, between the cedar shingles which o’erspread 
The roof, and from off its broad expanse, the falling waters shed. 

I well recall the pans set round the creviced attic floor, 

To catch the dropping water, from a sudden, fierce, down-pour. 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


51 


And when the children on a rainy day were kept at home, 

The pans performed the role of ponds, and in between them roam 
The country roads; or other times, the whole was Netherlands, 

With lakes and dikes, and flowery country crossed by watery bands. 
And then again, the spider-webbed retreat was visited to seek 
The last dime novel; or became a subterranean creek, 

Which down a hidden passage ran to sea. And other time, 

The little window in the gable end, is outlook prime, 

From which to see piratical confederates, in disguise, 

March out to glorious deeds of smuggling, war or otherwise. 

The broken, three-legged old-time sofa, was now a chair of state, 

With worn-out suits, and unmatched dish, resigned to fate; 

And trunks and hand-bags, coats forsaken, and old shoes galore, 

And piles of magazines, and former text books on the floor, 

Behind the grand old chimney, whose foundation, bedded deep, 

Is well beneath the cellar floor, and widens out, a very keep, 

Where one can look right up its oblong flue to outer air, 

Its massive features ending double, in a butressed pair. 

Colonial spinning wheel, and revolutionary spurs, 

The old long gun, and grandma’s long moth-eaten furs; 

Mementoes of the time when all was imagery and dress, 

For beautious women, and for men the camp and martial stress. 

The flowing hoop-skirt hanging there, the bustle, now unknown, 

Recall to eyes and mind, an earlier generation, grown. 

And still before, the fire-back with its English coat-of-arms, 

The flowing wigs, the cherished rouge and other toilet charms. 

Full many more, the secrets of the attic me escape, 

A place for romance, place for dreaming, and for childlike scrape. 

Made sacred by the joys and sorrows of the olden maze, 

More sacred still, by memories of our childhood’s happy days. 

’Twas such an attic had the house to which the boxes came, 

Containing Figueroa’s story. A house unknown to fame, 

But which produced a score of patriots, modest and sincere, 

A score, by counting father unto son, from times austere. 

Emblazoned on the scrolls of international renown, 

Are not their names; but well inscribed in records of the town, 

And in the hearts of neighbors, they had helped and served and nursed, 
And were in turn in little acts of kindness reimbursed. 


52 


THE MANUSCRIPT IS FOUND 


And when our country w T ent to war, to God be thanks, short-lived, 
A second time with men of Spanish speech, and briefly strived 
With Spain herself, the taking of the Philippine domain, 

With all the unaccustomed names, renewed the interest sane, 

In the tongue, and all the country now began to talk and read 
The Spanish; and this wave o’erran New England like a weed. 

At last it came to the town where rested Figueroa’s text, 

And led to its discovery and correct perusal next. 

The younger members of the family were about grown up, 

When we embarked in war with Spain; when Dewey went to sup 
In old Manilla Bay, it fired their spirits like a port, 

And set them studying Spanish, to decipher his report, 

So full of names unknown. And it was not very long, before 
They could a little talk, and were in search of Spanish lore. 

At this remembered one, that in the attic was a box, 

Containing Figueroa’s notes from Mexico; the locks 
Of language being now unloosed, the antique miner’s words 
Became like tongues of fire, or message brought by carrier birds. 
For while his notes did not amount to a description full, 

Of the locality; it was a true tale under bull, 

Of underground approaches, of the canyon, and the ore, 

In every other way correct; and so it was the more, 

A mental sketch-map of the mine, when finally construed 
Aright; though badly torn, and eaten by the rodents rude, 

And some parts lacking. It is easy, when one’s mind is led, 

To understand the galvanism of this voice from out the dead, 
Appealing to the mercenary and romantic traits 
Of all mankind; much more these youths in life’s half-opened gates; 
For when they read the mining captain’s thus reclaimed account 
Of treasures, far beyond the dreams of avarice, and fount 
Of riches in the earth, their hearts leaped forth to hunt the lair, 

To lead an expedition over mount and desert bare! 

Repeat the wanderings of Enrique’s legion, mountain tossed, 

And follow to the end the clews that guide to ore long lost. 

Imagine this! and you will see the leading motive plain, 

That led to re-discovery of the Arizuma vein. 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


53 


BOOK VIII 

The strong appeal of those words from the ancient dead! 

How to a long and weary search for long lost mines they led! 

An introduction to the evils of the “woolly west,” 

While he relaxes but a moment from his treasure quest!! 

Now, David Stout, the younger, was growing up to man’s estate, 
When the attic of his father’s house decreed his future fate; 

For finding Figueroa’s narrative of the mine 
Inspired him with the purpose and determination fine, 

To gain the marvellous deposit; once intention shaped, 

His preparations flowed apace; and as his plans escaped. 

He met with bantering ridicule and laughing raillery, 

With comment quite ill-natured on his long lost gallery, 

With blighting and discouraging predictions, with advice 
Meant more to hinder than to help; along with words quite nice; 
According to the nature of each one. For, in such a town, 

The spirit had grown cold, and calculating and bowed down 
By the pressure of a stern economy, and lack of chance 
To change or better one’s estate, or his success enhance. 

And though traditions lingered of the early pioneers, 

The destinies of this fair land had fostered so their fears, 

That care-free spirits, who in older times had made the world, 

Were looked upon askance, with flag of insolence unfurled. 

It needed then some courage to announce a daring plan, 

Not based on farming or some scheme to out-trade other man. 
However, when all saw that David had his mind made up, 

To tempt the bounty of the mines, they invited him, a cup 
To take with them on every eve; their former attitude, 

Conservative emotions, not merely actions rude, 

Revealed; and now they petted him and patted on the back, 

And urged him on, and helped his meagre goods in trunks to pack. 
His father, proud, deigned not to utter sanction or reproof, 

But gave him honest, cheerful counsel, holding not aloof; 


54 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


His mother, sturdy matron, fell not on his youthful neck, 

As perhaps she wished; but helped him pack, and hurried at his beck. 
The younger members of the household filled their souls with joy, 

And hustled them and all their friends and neighbors for the boy. 

For lo, there still remain, where thought of least, romantic souls 
To carry on our civilization’s march to forward goals! 

And once the ice was broken, it was not hard to quiet doubt; 

Thus in a month or two, he had all ready and set out. 

His trunk contained his necessary clothes for daily wear, 

A few good mining books, and toilet articles with care 
Arranged, and other trinkets which he thought to need in camp, 

But most of which he was obliged to throw away on tramp. 

With these he came across the continent; El Paso reached; 

And there his outfit on the windy dusty adobe beached. 

As when a scudding ship, approaching fast a barbarous land, 

With headway that can not be stopped, piles up her spars astrand; 

So David, in this mountain passage, came to sudden rest, 

Among a people all unknown, though filled with life’s keen zest. 

Here then he lingered while he taught himself a heaping store. 

Of useful knowledge, wild west tongues and other desert lore. 

Then on through sun-dried levels, over chancy watered slopes, 
With sleek coyotes peopled and with ghosts of ranchers’ hopes, 

And finally to that branch of steel, that runs through Papago 
Encampments, on its winding way to older Mexico. 

This stretch of iron road was christened “ Burro line,” 

In scorn, derision and contempt; because like running vine, 

It wound around the hills as would the sluggish animal, 

From whom it got its name. And were it not for mineral 
Deposits through the altitudinarian defiles, 

There would be little else to justify the creeping miles 
Of rails across this range of mountains. As it really was 
A cattle depot here, and there a loading platform, cause 
A frontier settlement to spring up like a sorry weed; 

Supply stores for the cowboys’ and the miners’ pressing need; 

An eating place for transient callers, flanking great dance hall, 

And on the other side a gambling room with devices all, 

For trying out the games of chance, so well and hardly known, 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


55 


In territorial days, before the west was fairly grown. 

Roulette and faro flourished, and the maid of low degree, 

The tin-horn’s diamonds glistened, while he sought his sneaking fee; 
Mescal in rivers ran through the lodges of the olive-hued, 

While whiskies made from acids, burnt e’en through the senses lewd, 
Of that wild throng! 

When David reached that lonely frontier town, 
He was surprised to see the rotten horde that followed down, 

Not knowing they were but the dregs of all the country round, 

Who gathered there to fleece the ignorant sheep, and which abound 
About such places, and with those who seek to beg their drink 
From charitably disposed consumers, make connecting link. 

Between the purely idle and the criminal corrupt, 

Who weaken law, and the sacred bonds of social life disrupt. 

All this was new to David, and he puzzled over sights 

Ne’er seen by him before. He did not know the bar-room lights, 

Were but a lure to loafers; after several years’ regard, 

He used to say that he learned more of actions, at home barred, 

In his first week in this new town, than all his life before; 

For here he saw men getting freely drunk, and shedding gore, 

With knives and other odious weapons, frenzied when reviled; 

Such scenes were common in those days; indeed the acts were wild 
Enough, that he saw then. And never in his future years, 

Did he see life, in such like horror, dread and murderous fears. 

But soon his mind was taken from such low ignoble thought, 
Immersed in tales of wonderful discoveries, long-sought, 

Of mines and prospects by the score, in all the land about; 

With stories of new strikes, with millions far beyond a doubt, 

And many mystic formulas for the opening of silver veins; 

Above all reaping from the copper mines their steady gains; 

Such gains, as ne’er before in all the wide, wide world were seen; 
Fantastic in their magnitude, though difficult to glean, 

With aid of thousands laboring at various processes, 

And other thousands in the future care and businesses, 

Of separating copper from the matte and from the ores, 

First taken from old Nature’s boundless, though long-hidden stores. 
The Copper Queen, with its remarkable deposits, found, 


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THE SEARCH BEGINS 


The Cananea, and the riches which its lodes impound; 

The Tombstone shafts, with rainy bellies of the yellow gold; 

The Ajo Mountains, with stupendous pledges, known of old; 

The Silver Bell, unearthing stores of the ruddy element; 

The C. and A., whose furtive wealth to more courageous bent 
Fell subject; sinking whose deep shaft, mid-earth bravely to explore, 
Was work of engineering bold, and caught the buried ore. 

The Warren district had produced a few more mines of note, 

And around the desert hills were many others one could quote, 

That promised ore to yield in paying quantities; of these 
Was Greaterville, the gold deposit under live-oak trees, 

On northern slope of the Santa Ritas, in Old Baldy’s shade; 

Whose mobile millions years ago went into busy trade. 

This sparkling galaxy of mines, none other could excell, 

In all the range of earth, nor will be rung their passing knell, 

When generations now unknown are gone: 

So David Stout, 

With burros loaded with his camping tools and tent, set out 
One golden day for the azure hills that guard the horizon’s edge; 

He took all things deemed needful for exploring hidden ledge. 

He also had a bucking bronco which he rode himself, 

Amusing all about. For David while not made of Delf, 

And on the farm had passed for quite a horseman, was surprised 
By the quick maneuvers, and the subtile motions as devised 
By this atrocious animal. And as he sat upon the ground, 

With aching bones, and stars innumerable gyrating round, 

He swore by all his sacred lares he would mount that horse 
And stay upon him, come what may. All in their daily course, 

Who saw that sight, will never lose remembrance of that day, 

Of him, who entertained them by his bronco-busting way, 

Nor of the kazzardly cayuse, who that hour met his match; 
Although ’twas many days before he knew, and many a scratch! 

So David having barely whipped his pony into line, 

Proceeded to the magic mountains looking for his mine; 

And in a canyon’s narrow vale, bagan at once to plan 

His castrametation rude. This took some while, for each redan 

Upon uneven slopes was studied out with watchful care, 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


57 


And pains were taken to divert the waters falling there; 

To make the walls so close that insects were kept out the tent, 

And to protect the food supplies from rats and squirrels bent 
On carrying off the whole. There was a rodent called “trade-rat,” 
Who made a constant practice of exchanging this for that: 

A chip for a piece of bread, a splinter for a fountain pen, 

A little gravel for some grains of rice, from his hidden den 

Some fluffs for glazier’s points, a mesquite bean for an empty purse, 

Without design; again the trade may be the exact reverse. 

A great plague they! And to protect a camp from their assaults 
Is often times a problem, which its consequence exalts. 

But having made his camp secure, and opened and enlarged 
A flowing spring of water, and his cupboards fully charged, 

He set about his serious business, to explore the hills 

For veins of ore, that could be shipped or sent to proper mills. 

And now to field! to search for his own mine! so wide the choice 
Among the many veins outcropping, that at length the voice 
Of Figueroa, long ago, became so weakened quite, 

With all this plenitude, his search was not confined so tight, 

To one lost vein or mine. But in the number of rich lodes, 

He thought his chance to be as good as any; all the codes 
Allowed him opportunity of choosing: while they involve, 

The very abundance of the ores obstructed his resolve. 

He loaded up his burro with the tools and frugal food, 

And fared across the sloping canyons, and in working mood, 
Prospected while the hobbled burro fed upon the grass 
That grew around; and, often, looking at the sturdy ass, 

Which slowly chews its scanty meal, while finishing his feast, 

He voiced his musings as he ruminated on the beast!! 

“O Burro! patient animal! O beast of burdens sore! 

Who came here from some semi-tropic Mediterranean shore! 

Thy fathers roamed through Spanish vineyards, or near Moorish sea, 
In Egypt’s sunlit valley, or in far-off Galilee! 

But thou art here, to carry, as of yore, the weighty load! 

Upon this mountain trail, so far removed from any road! 

I marvel at thy courage! at thy patience! at thy strength! 

E’en while I grant thy slowness! thy stupidity! the length 


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Abnormal of thy slouching ears! thy obstinate respect! 

Thy tranquil mode among the woes which stubbornly infect 
Thy course of life! forgetting not thy hoarse and raucous voice, 
Creating far-flown music in the mountains of thy choice! 

Without thee, life in passes such as these, would be a grind, 

Which even bronco here could not relieve or succor find! 

’Tis often said that without thee, no mine was ever found, 

Because thou coverest minutely every inch of ground; 

One prospector tells me he prospected twenty lonesome years, 

And of this, eighteen spent he hunting burros, with his fears, 

Each time aroused that they were gone. But thou dost never shirk; 
I know where’er thou goest, goest but to look for work.” 

Thus David thought, and so from day to day, the hills explored, 
And gained in knowledge all the time, until his mind was stored 
With many lessons of experience. Afterward he moved 
His camp to other veins; and thus he worked the ores and proved 
The value they possessed. And often as his camp he struck, 
Explorers from the neighborhood came down to fold his duck, 

And help him pack. Each one had notions of his very own, 

About the diamond hitch, the figure eight, which must be shown; 
And so they’d stand and argue these, and a hundred thousand more; 
These explanations were laborious, and a stupid bore. 

No matter how they dawdled, the burro imperturbably still, 

Awaited their decisions, nor himself aroused, until 
The packing started; then ’twas off upon his untried way, 
Gesticulators left behind to argue all the day. 

From vein to vein, as showing beckoned, David worked along, 
Now shipping ore, then losing all; rejoicing now in song, 

And now complaining as the ore grew scarce; for so it goes, 

A man who wins the stuff, develops, as they say, a nose 
For ore (of quality so good to make its market sure); 

And yet where no ore is, the showings vainly them allure. 

So passed some years; then David having worked enticing vein 
So long, determined now to try the long lost mine to gain. 

He came into the railroad town, and there before his eyes 
The curse of drink spread out, octopus huge, with thin disguise, 

And as he whiled the dragging hours, in tiresome thought, away, 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


59 


He thus communed with his own soul, attentive and did say: 

“0 crowning wrong of Christian civilization’s forward course! 

The grog-shop is the home of such unmentionable ills, and source 
Of such grave evils to our national prosperity, 

That all of us as sharing members of society, 

Must fight to kill this searing curse. For oh! the ruinous saloon! 

From out whose flaring doors, a thousand paths lead straight and soon, 
To gaping gates of penitentiaries; and from whose bar 
Diverge those influences, that corrupt men near and far! 

From whose secretive depths is radiated countless crime! 

From whose resplendent mirrors is reflected all the time 
The fierce grimace and evil faces of insanity! 

From whose card tables reaches out the scourge of poverty! 

Upon whose foot-rail, idleness forever leans and loafs! 

And by whose tireless mechanism are ground out countless oafs! 

Whose hang-dog clients dirty all administrative pools, 

And make the grafters, malefactors, and the boss who rules! 

For alcohol, howe’er imbibed, destroys all power of will, 

The critical capacity, the force of ethics’ drill, 

Aesthetic sense, and calming influence of self-control; 

All these are drowned by much indulgence in the flowing bowl. 

It brings degeneracy, sickness, felony and vice, 

And in their train the waste of pasteboards and the clink of dice! 

And while the harm to those who drink is known to all full well, 

The greater harm is done to unborn children, by the fell 
Reaction of this poison, which exerts its worse effects 
In epileptic, feeble-minded and deformed life-wrecks. 

So during Rome’s heroic days, no woman drank 

The wine of e’en Falernian fields, on pain of death; but shrank 

From evil consequences of indulgence on her child; 

Perceiving well the curse that follows drinking, howe’er mild. 

Shall we be less discerning, less denying then than they? 

And curb this bold indecent traffic while we may? 

It surely is the most important issue of our age, 

And must be settled now in calmness, without hate or rage. 

To gain a tainted revenue, by brewers’ orders urged, 

And by distillers’ pressure, though by honest conscience scourged, 


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The pillars of our government impose on us this pest, 

Deriding us in meanness as the ‘wild and woolly west/ 

We bide our time, until we get to be a sovereign state, 

And then we will command our future and this curse abate!” 

Thus David thought, and having laid his course of action down, 
Proceeded to inspect the weird attractions of the town. 

Orana was a specimen of such claim-owners smart, 

Who kept a ready list of claims for any chancing mart; 

He bargained them, and thought himself much better than the rest, 
But never could complete the sale; dishonor did infest 
His every act and left him each time worse off than before, 

And drunken orgy ruined him, and left him weak and sore. 

Tom Evans was a huge and bulky meddler from Scotia’s strand, 
Nick-named a Big Sucker,” whether from his sea-washed native land, 
Or from his cavernous mouth, it would be difficult to say; 

If whiskey, he could drink all Fundy’s lunar tidal bay; 

Buttinski called by prospectors for his designing aid, 

And huge anxiety to interfere in every trade. 

He hung around the crystal palace of imbibed delight, 

And argued on all mentioned subjects loudly into night. 

With these were Peter and old Thomas, partners in some claims, 

One, sixty-two, the other seventy-one; so high their aims, 

They never reached the mark; but striving certainly is good, 

And they were daily furnished ample drink and scanty food; 

And their excitement in their strikes, and their belief intense, 

In sales at fancy prices, raised a drink without expense. 

And near to them was Hamilton, an all around galoot, 

Who tried to make a mine upon a big wide vein, and moot 
He left it. His partner was McDee, with whom he went to live. 
Right clean and smart, before he joined McDee, and what they give 
To visitors he never knew, but shortly after, he was black 
With grime and dirt, with streaky line and liberal sun-crack. 

He gambled when he had no other occupation fit, 

And had some local fame for being tough, as all admit. 

He lived in back rooms of the low resorts when found in town, 

But made his living fairly on the would-be sporty clown. 

Unlike McArg, who came from Cailifornia placer bed, 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


61 


And who could make a clean-up if perchance he washed his head, 
Where California grit had nestled, lo! these many years, 

And proper time had never come to clean above his ears. 

He kept quite sober many months at times, but when he spreed, 
Threw decency to all the winds, obsessed with liquid greed. 

On other side were Murphy and McMurphy, Irish lords, 

Who taunted fate by wrestling with a net of silver cords 
In mountain veins. And though they took out ore with some success, 
They were not stayers long enough to buy a mine, bad cess! 

Too bad they did their mining mostly in the grog-shop’s stoop, 

Well known as plaza miners with an eye on easy dupe! 

Such like and other characters did David entertain, 

While he disports a space from search of Arizuma vein! 


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BOOK IX 

The young man’s marriage and their married life in this new land; 

The horrid crimes that never touched them, though on every hand; 

The neighbors who surrounded them among the lonely hills; 

Their traits and customs, made by changing life that bores or thrills! 

This filled his time for several weeks, but sight of other men 
With women of their own; and memories of one girl then, 

Unsettled him, and made him feel so lonesome, that at once 

His mind turned back to the old home, and the small flat-bottomed punts 

Among the water lilies, where he last had seen her face, 

Surrounded by a tiny bonnet and some scarfs of lace; 

A cheerful countenance, and in his dallying memory, 

A piquant profile, charming smiles, and luring eyes had she. 

And spurred on by his new found interest and his lonely plight, 

He suddenly determined to proceed, by day and night, 

In haste to visit home once more. When there he came at last, 

He long remained recalling all that happened in the past. 

He talked of olden days, of boyhood’s happy interlude, 

But more of his adventures in the west, among the rude 
And scanty outfits of his prospecting and mining friends; 

To which all listened eagerly; and as so much depends 
Upon the quality of listening, he made his tales 
So fresh, so retroactive, and so vivid, raising gales 
Of laughter, storms of tears and agonies of pure delight, 

As he went on from one exciting deed to other plight. 

Thus passed his days, until he hankered for the west again, 

The drier mountain air, the broad free views, and living men. 

Meantime, subordinating all things else to this one end, 

He courted his Medora; passing first as merely friend, 

He soon became impassioned lover; and his suit he pressed 
In stirring fashion; later, thinking bolder course the best, 

He laid close siege to love’s fair citadel. And this did yield, 

So fierce his onslaught. Quickly all the hurts of love are healed. 


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A union thus of souls was made which lasted out their lives, 

Well bound by love’s invisible pulsations, not by gyves. 

So Wednesday morn, as shone the sun upon the old church spire, 
Extending gracefully toward heaven, the birds like lute and lyre. 
Creating music all about, there entered through the porch, 

High pillared in colonial style, a merry tribe with nuptial torch, 
Embaying David and Medora. The minister with solemn words 
United them in marriage, and amid the songs of birds, 

Thereafter long remembered, he adjured them to be true, 

And blessed them both, and only one came out where went in two. 

As was the fashion of the day a breakfast followed next, 

And soon was swallowed up in social joy, the preacher’s text. 

But finally David and his wife escaped all prying eyes, 

And fled from the pleasantries of humerous guests, and grieving sighs 

Of home dependents. And amid a shower of rice and the cast 

Off shoes, long worn, they took their way to the rail train, fleeting fast 

To the receding sunset, followed by the gentle grudge 

Of maidens left behind, and the men’s well meant but trifling fudge. 

So on they came, o’er plain and mountain in luxurious style, 

Until they reached the fields well chosen to amass their pile. 

When David and Medora braved the Santa Rita thrills, 

They found some other men entrenched among the jagged hills; 

Old prospectors and mostly bachelors; a woman’s voice 

Had scarce been heard in all the wilderness; though not by choice 

Did these embrace their loveless lot. For not so long ago, 

Imperious savages roamed the desert over, high and low, 

And threatened every living thing; and in their wake had come 
A bold impatient throng; when sober, peaceful, when in rum 
No man could say to what wild, brutal, past they would revert; 

The fear of them, the whole sierra region held inert. 

Still, on they came and builded them a tent-house in a pass, 

That pierced those buttressed hills; for the wild and bold impatient mass 
Were in the larger camps that gave them booty, or moved on 
To other livelier bustling scenes, when booms bore down upon 
Those favored and much advertised localities. So they 
Were never troubled much with them, except upon the way 
To town or in the town itself. And after respite spent, 


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Those bolder spirits moved away or settled down content. 

In all their Arizona life, though crime around them spread, 

No hurt or harm to them was done; nor else to make them dread. 

And here they sometimes mused, and David to his eager wife 
Quite confidentially remarked, as pondered he on life: 

“ The secret thoughts of any man are all his own, 

Revealed to no one else! ’Tis only by his actions, known, 

He can be partly judged! For this and other reasons given, 

Our judgements always leave so many things to be forgiven! 

More surely is this true of pioneers, who leading lives 
Removed from social contact, specially when they have no wives, 
Appear more grouchy and unsocial than they really are, 

And oftentimes unwittingly their reputations mar. 

Their ways are short and grumpy, but their hearts are made of gold, 
Their speech is brief but fluent like philosophers of old. 

Such is the general run of men, and miners are the same, 

For each is an unsolved enigma, if worthy of a name.” 

So David to Medora as the days flew gaily by, 

And each one of the miners he assayed to weigh and try, 

By various tests. By giving here and taking there he probed 
Them all, and each one in his own particular garments robed. 

Now there was old man Albertsen, the very oldest man 
In all the Santa Rita crags; in point of service, than 
All others longer in the harness. A roaming sailor he, 

In his young days; and several years he coursed the open sea, 

From Denmark starting. But on one trip he abandoned all, 
Responding to the sharp insistence of his future’s call. 

His stature was not great, but great his strong and fertile mind; 

His flowing beard was like to that of the master poet blind, 

Well trimmed and neat all times; and full of astral lore, 

The starry arch to him was but the diamond studded door 
To heaven; each star a friend, whose name and times he knew, 

The sun and moon in all their courses passing through the blue, 

The winged creatures, fluttering above with cheerful song, 

The whole wide world of fine created things observed along 
His winding and uneven trails; the mountain’s weary waste, 

The rocks built up by years and torn apart by rushing haste 


NEIGHBORS AND CUSTOMS 


65 


Of waters, in their mad tumbling to the desert’s level sands; 

The different ores that offered up their tribute to his hands; 

All these were but the likings of a lover of all things; 

Contented with his lot, for whom all nature cheery sings. 

A Swedenborgian in his creed, and shunning evil too; 

A little mystical, but simple, honest, firm and true. 

Then there is Richard Doyle, the old man’s partner. Not too young, 
Was he; for while his elder passed three score and ten, he strung 
Along life’s past the vanities of but three score of years. 

He put aside vexations as he put aside all fears. 

From Ireland he had come before the disestablishment, 

And churchman loyal he. Fine prospector; to the trade he lent 
Shrewd powers of observation, and a concentration close, 

Which gave him great success in finding ore; and not verbose 
In his descriptions; which commissioned him to represent 
The various salient features of their mines to buyers, bent 
On getting all the fruits of their long labors. But they sold 
Or leased a prospect now and then, and got their glittering gold. 

They both had gone out to the Spanish war in spite of age, 

As members of the Riders Rough, for Arizona’s gage; 

And when the war was over they came back to the mountain’s rocks, 

To hunt again the elusive ore, which shy and hidden, mocks 
Their best endeavors. In a canyon rough they built their house, 

And on a little bench, a garden which betimes they souse 
With water from their tunnel, just above, with lettuce, beets, 

And Himalaya berries; with a peach, whose foliage meets 
Both banks and makes a welcome shade, and which bears some ruddy 
fruit; 

And here they sit, when work is done, and talk of every bruit. 

Ars Rauber was another one, they found among the hills, 

Fie kept a little store and people grunted o’er the bills 
He served them with, for bough ten goods; a merry war of words 
Went on between the buyer and the seller. As the birds, 

That chatter on the pinnacles, reproach each other all, 

So flowed the constant lamentations; and with hoot and call, 

They drove hard bargains o’er the counter. But well hardened he, 

And quite phlegmatic; and of lazy insincerity; 


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With fell design, professing no regard for fact and truth, 

He strewed the hills with slanders, and for honor had no ruth. 

Outside of this he was obliging sycophant to men, 

Whenever they gave tribute to his business. Now and then, 

He showed to some advantage, full of social spirits flow; 

He spent his money freely when he had a cup or so. 

He fattened on the growing prospects; but when these gave out, 

He flattened like the pancakes, passed around on border scout, 

And sitting down he cursed his father and the day when he was born, 
The neighbors all, his own of kin, and held them up to scorn. 

An all too common subject in the great commercial world, 

Like ugly, stupid bullhead in the muddy waters whirled! 

A crooked legged cow-boy, sitting on his taper heels, 

Whose smiling impudence a heart of sympathy conceals; 

With gaudy, gay sombrero, and a coat of many hues, 

Reflecting golden lights; and the constant cigaret, whose fuse 
Is always lighted. This was the celebrated Bud Benoit, 

Who took his part in all the tournaments, and so adroit 
In all the wiles of bronco, and the foolishness of steer 
Was he, that he had taken prize or medal every year. 

He worked his bald-faced cattle on the Santa Rita range; 

To him no peak was long unseen, no water-hole was strange; 

He pushed across the valley, and rode up the bristling bluff, 

Until his mount was like to perish, howe’er fresh and tough, 

And drifting down the rock-strewn hills, all hazards took, 

From rolling stones, from jutting limb, or tumble in the brook. 

He could read poorly; even taking pains, a letter write; 

But neither practised much, and either gave him serious fright. 

He went to all the dances, stayed till spluttering lights went out, 

And then was off across the hills with laugh and howl and shout. 

He knew the girls in every village, but he never sieved 
The right one out, and so a pitiful existence lived. 

He gathered in the leppies, orejanas and the strays, 

Until he got so many that he had to mend his ways, 

And spend his time in watching others do the same to him. 

And thus the greatest cattle men but had their little grim 
And transitory life, and later passed from ken of man; 


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67 


As building up by loot from others always brings its ban. 

It seems as though the business led to thievery and sack, 

And that from those who take, the spoil was always taken back. 
But this was later, when the years had taken vengeful toll; 

For in our time, old Bud Benoit was cheery, kind and droll. 

Garcia was of Spanish stock and California birth; 

A blacksmith in his trade, and in the trade a man of worth. 

He came here in the year that David did, and married here 
A woman of the Pima tribe. She was like a hunted deer, 

So tiny, and so small in feature, sunk in reticence, 

With little, sharp and penetrating eyes, and muscle tense, 

With pointed nose, and ears acute, she quickly learned the news, 
But never could of Indian fears, her mind-thoughts disabuse; 

So never countenanced the English, and would neither speak 
Nor understand it, nor let her family our counsels seek. 

She spoke a faulty Spanish, that the more intelligent 
And educated Mexicans did often sore resent. 

In spite of this, Garcia spoke the English, spoke it well, 

Much better than the broken patois of his dark gazelle. 

He never reached that steady point, that men relied on him, 

Nor did he ever cease to govern all his acts by whim; 

Manana was his motto, and:—than never, better late; 

Do never that to-day, which could as well to-morrow wait. 

Once started at a job, he proved a workman quick and true; 

Was easily content with frugal fare, and cheerful too. 

He passed through hardships in his later years with children eight, 
Who came from time to time to bless his matrimonial state; 

These children were a credit to their parents and to all, 

Who neighbored with them and assisted in what did befall; 

Well shod and neat their mother kept them; but of course the case 
Did not admit of intimate commingling, face to face. 

Yet David kept on friendly terms with them and all the rest 
Of the Indian families; though he knew the Garcias much the best. 

Now Matthew Holmes was able prospector and miner both, 
And full of learning in regard to mountain habits; loth 
To leave his well loved crags, nor yet to stay alone content; 

So in his later days he sought for passions long up-pent, 


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Release by marriage, and he took unto himself a mate, 

From out the city which is at the Rio Grande gate, 

By which the older country to the south is entered in. 

Here in the town of healers, on the slopes of the hill of tin, 

He spent his honeymoon, belated, on the border line, 

And after came to live in the simple house at his own mine. 

His spouse was little, graceful, lively, slender yet compact, 
Spontaneous in her movements, yet with sense intact; 

Initiative, responsive, and in every way a gain 
To the community wherein she used her cheerful brain. 

Her burro could be seen in various weathers, bright or gray, 
Awandering over hidden trails, or down the beaten way. 

The first a frolic or a new adventure to suggest, 

The last a party to desert while needing further zest. 

The two lived happy on the mountain’s elevated flank, 

And of the inspiring and invigorating currents drank. 

There lived in those days at Riqueza camp, a family large, 

Who in the merry times of exploitation had the charge 
Of several Mexicans doing work on near-by mining claims. 

The children were well trained and answered promptly to their names; 
The mother was a daughter of a strange and foreign land, 

From which she came when eighteen years of age; this band, 

Not lightly put aside, unites her still to strange pursuits, 

And her devotion to her native tongue, much less refutes 
Those guesses as to nationality, made by those who see 
But with the careless eye. Her sojourn in this mountain free, 

Had but enhanced those virtues, which were taught her in her youth, 
And she had grown more serious, more womanly, forsooth, 

As years had flown. Quite frugal, thrifty, and a prime house-wife, 

She surely earned her envied place in this remoter life. 

And when the days of stress came down upon her zealous head, 

She used her every wit to plan and keep her family fed. 

For Conrad Small came out from Denver in a prosperous time, 

And met the panic and the dreadful scourge, and ghoulish grime 
Of those unlucky years. No matter where for help he turned, 

The answer was the same. For when the human heart discerned 
The swooping onslaught of those dreadful hard times on their heads, 


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69 


They fled with one great scramble to their hidden sheltering sheds, 
And there they cowered till the flame of fate had partly passed. 

Not helping others, they themselves in sodden fear downcast. 

As when a flock of fowd perceives a dreadful eagle swoop, 
Descending from unseen assemblage, they away to coop, 

And there remain unmoved by others’ wants and others’ needs, 
Until the danger has gone by; nor penalties nor meeds 
Can stir them. For enveloped by the surpassing fear 
Their minds are palsied, and appeals for help they can not hear. 
This suffering, such as tales of famines tell, such Conrad felt, 

And agonies of hunger and distress that all hearts melt; 

Give God the praise! those days are past and gone for good; 

For now the times are kind, and no one really lacks for food; 

And Conrad prospers; in his mine are greater ore reserves, 

Than ever known before, and he with care this wealth conserves. 

Guadalupe Figueroa was another friend that David made, 

In his early days of struggle in the hills. He was his aid 
And workman in the first large mining contract that he let, 

And ever after, worked at times for him; nor could he get 
A man more faithful. And as David had but little cash, 

He must evade the tearful pleadings of the worthless trash, 

That flocked around him when they knew of him; nor could escape 
He always from their cheating clutch. For all that he could scrape 
Together, was but pitiful to meet the wants of those, 

Who really needed help. In after years, this fact arose 
To save him from the wiles with which reformers got alert 
Co-operation, in their planning to the world convert. 

But he had seen deceiving, cunning wiles brought into play, 

By men brought up in tribal socialism, that he could say, 

Without a bit of hesitation, that communal plan, 

Must in the end depend upon the character of the man, 

Who leads them; for a man there must and will forever be, 

To give their aspirations voice; no matter, whether free 
As life is on our blessed shores; or whether hard and fast, 

In military Junker land, one’s fortunes all are cast 
Upon the die of individual character. Some one 
Will set the pace for all the rest; in actions to be done, 


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And in the thoughts that govern life. So be he Kaiser, Czar 
Or unknown commoner, he leads all humans near and far. 

This much learned David, from Guadalupe and his racial kin; 

This much remained to fairly well console him for the sin 
Committed in the name of government, the which he saw, 

On every side and seemingly concomitant with earthly law. 
Meanwhile Guadalupe worked for him in faithful guise, 

An able miner, and in sinking and in drifting passing wise; 

A citizen with public spirit, and with private zeal, 

Who helped to open up his prospects for the common weal. 

His name sometimes brought up to David’s wondering mind, 

His possible ancestor of the Arizuma find. 

And lucky Ike, who owned the Great Jerusalem lead mine; 

The Navajo and Poplin he had sold, and used to dine 
Upon the proceeds. His father came from Posen in the east, 

But he almost forgot to be a Jew, and shone in feast, 

At any time of night. He learned the minerals in these hills, 

In younger days, and had the knack to impart those tingling thrills, 
Which contracts quickly bind. And so succeeded in his sales, 

With many a joke, and of his earlier hazards, stirring tales. 

And giant Bird, who owned the Eagle shafts, which money burn; 
Who loved the girls, and proffered marriage to them each in turn. 

A wondrous worker, with far-seeing faith in every mine, 

True Prospector of the desert mountains; rarely mocked by wine; 
And while attracted by the girls, as fancies lightly bend, 

He was a prince of miners, and an everlasting friend! 

A school was kept in camp, established after David came, 

And various were the tactics, used by many a worthy dame 
To teach this school; Miss Evans was the first to try her hand, 

Who came a pilgrimage from far-off Minnesota land; 

A gentle dame of sweet and ripened age; who won all hearts 
By pleasing manners, and in turn was pierced by Cupid’s darts. 
There followed then the youngest one; a student well assured, 

Who aimed to learn more as she taught. In turn by Hymen lured, 
Dear Bettie’s now a mother. And the children whom she taught, 
Remember her with a gratitude that never could be bought. 

The next in line was a student and a worker both, and more; 


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71 


Named for the good Queen Anne; she had a school of full three score. 
She came from coastward, and a beautiful example too, 

Of what that land of spring time and of luscious fruits could do. 

There followed her, her old-time friend, Virginia’s daughter slim, 

Who died a martyr to her duty, or her conception grim, 

Of what she owed to work. A great and unrequited love 
But added burdens, and Miss Bertha fled to realms above. 

Miss Una Smid was other one of good old Holland stock, 

Of University renown, and steady as a clock. 

He often hoped to see Miss Anne and Una teach again 
Among the Santa Rita canyons. One with fertile pen, 

The other with illuminating brush, have gone abroad. 

And pleased far wider fields, and critical assemblies awed. 

Miss Leigh was shy and modest, and from Alabama’s flat 
She came, unreconstructed rebel yet, and discontented sat; 

The children, while they liked her smile, disdained her careless drawl. 
And when she left, some loved, and none disliked, but pitied all. 

The Miss McCelt, from the Emerald Isle by one or two removes, 
Came down to teach our school, in condescension that behooves 
Us all to notice and remark. A smart and clever girl, 

Had not her manners bordered on the manners of a churl, 

And so unlike the blarney of her forbears, who had kissed 
The stone of kind politeness; being here, this gift she missed. 

So one and other taught the youths; among them David’s boys; 

And something taught by each; by this one cult, by this one poise; 
This taught them adding, other history, other still to read; 

And one to draw, and one to talk, and one again to plead. 

His wonder was, what spiritual traits they really learn from each, 

As in the search for knowledge, their minds unfolding upward reach. 

And Shanghai Smith can hardly be consistently o’erlooked. 

He was a super of some note, and for the coast was booked; 

But meeting on the train some dubious men, he let be guessed 
That he had money. Reaching town, as they together messed, 

They doped him, robbed of all he had, and dazed, without his clothes. 
They had him carried on a deep sea whaler, bound to nose 
Its way to Behring Strait through storm-tossed surf. Thus castaway. 
And carried north to circle waters ere encountered they 


72 


NEIGHBORS AND CUSTOMS 


A ship home-bound, he had quite time to numerate his faults, 

To make some new resolves, and wise up from the seasoned salts. 

At length turned back, upon another whaler, coming home, 

In several weeks he saw his native land. From out the foam 
He sprang like one new born. For while he was completely lost, 

His wife, left lonesome in the hills, was just as badly tempest tossed 
In mind as he in body. She, more piteous in her plight, 

Removed from dear Old Baldy’s slopes, and thus was lost to sight, 

Nor ever heard of more direct. In some clime more elect, 

She nursed her husband back, we hope, to partial self respect. 

These are among the persons who embellished David’s life, 

And many more with whom he came in contact, not in strife, 

But friendly intercourse. Though here and there some hardness grew. 
At most it was relations strained with but a very few, 

And passed away in time. And while above each salient point 
Has been described, the heavy burdens, several and joint, 

With which they were oppressed, can not be thus entirely told; 

For theirs was human nature in the rough, as long of old; 

Their frailties and their sins stand out in strong perspective thus, 

And show the world how others’ faults are manifest to us. 

But if in retrospect these others have seemed bad and low, 

The curtain now is drawn to hide their evil, sprung from woe? 

For having told their faults, their virtues must be also weighed, 

And only He who sees within the soul, and all good made, 

Can accurately total all the good impulses, which, 

Though never come to general view, the human heart enrich. 

’Tis thus with human nature, with its pleasure and its bane, 

All called in play to help unearth the Arizuma vein. 


MINERS’ TROUBLES 


73 


BOOK X 

The miners in their idle moments pass a few remarks, 

About a worthless class of gentry vile, that backward harks; 

Old-timers and Apache Indians are in brief recalled; 

The martyr-miners are in proper niches now installed!! 

Now David in the first place, thought that all he had to do, 

Was prospect round and find a good outcropping vein or two, 

And sell it at a price; but he soon found the problem hard, 

And complicated by a hundred things not on the card; 

And finally by panic in the business world, brought on by fear 
Of hostile legislation, which for many a striving year, 

Had been demanded by the discontented in our midst; 

And this demand was echoed by all those distressed, thou didst 
Entice to such experimental mind and mood, O Fate! 

Who thought by law anew to succor and uplift the state; 

Not knowing that all law is but the creature, not the source 
Of public sentiment: and that no law has binding force, 

Until God’s righteousness has filled the fervent heart with awe, 

And this has been transcribed with solemn faith to honest law. 

The time is ripe to open with complete veracity, 

Their secrets, though they lack sensational salacity; 

For now both David and his friends were passing years so dull 
In mining sales, that the calling might have been a ship-wrecked hull, 
So dead was it! A few were shipping but the prices were a ban; 
Until one fine spring day, the vein was cut on the Mary Ann! 

This started men to venture, as it proved beyond a doubt, 

That mines were plenty in the mineral districts round about, 

And gained quite simply by development in daring way; 

And that courageous men could win the metals that would pay. 

Thus thinking, sacrifices they would not have made before, 

Were cheerfully endured, and backers rose up by the score. 

So with this new found spirit urging, mines were brought to light, 
That else would never raise their valid claims to searchers’ sight; 


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MINERS’ TROUBLES 


And with the birth of confidence anew there came to search 

From every quarter of the earth, the men who sought a place to perch, 

Where fortune could be wooed. With these there came a class! 

The Engineers of mines. Among them many, who alas! 

Were so-called experts, with a minimum of mining art, 

And more than needed of the impudence, so fresh and tart, 

That in the tissues which replace their brains, is thought to wed 
With knowledge. Which in fact deceives at times the wisest head. 

The antics of this meretricious class are too grotesque 
To tell in detail; and their mental flights too picturesque 
To write at random; but they leave indelibly impressed 
Upon our plastic hearts, the stamp of deals they wanton messed. 

Let Small forsooth relate his sore experiences with such, 

Endeavoring all the time to wriggle from his searing touch: 

“Now Doctor Gabel, graduate from a higher German school, 

With all degrees in order, came out here, a learned fool! 

For after some preliminary practice with an ore, 

Which pyrite as the only mineral of value bore, 

He came to Arizona, and set up as an expert here, 

Of copper and of silver mines, and what was still more queer, 

He put it over on the management of the Metal King, 

Who hired him to examine and report on every thing 
Presented to them; and his owl-like visage, which fooled none 
Was seen and scorned throughout the mines shone on by southern sun. 
For nothing is so soon appraised at its repletive worth, 

As shameful pretence; as when a sulphur miner in his dearth 
Of knowledge, tries to pass upon a prospect or a mine, 

As different in its origin and ore, as beer from wine! 

The one is gross with icturitious foul impurities 
Wherein froth rises to the top, as such celebrities; 

Whereas the other with its sparkling, bubbling sprightliness, 

Shows forth its greater worth in exhilarating earnestness. 

To rise as froth and blow away, should be the rightful fate 
Of those like Gabel, who expose themselves to miners’ hate. 

By taking from the miner who has spent his lonely years 
Prospecting for a vein of ore; with help of work and tears 
Has found the craving of his soul; is now prepared to sell; 


MINERS' TROUBLES 


75 


Has hunted one who thinks to buy, a task far worse to tell; 

By taking from these searchers all their chance to realize; 

By falsely claiming to be judge, and feigning overwise; 

He merits foulest obliquy! and generally gets it too; 

But not until the damage has been done, until the spew 
Of his own mouth has drowned him in a pool of infamy. 

Steer clear of him as noxious flotsam in the business sea!" 

And Albertsen expressed his scathing hate and fierce disgust, 
With yet another who had with his expectations fussed: 

“ Then Ira Hasten came to see the much experted Flux, 
Expecting I suppose, to carry off the lead in trucks, 

With silver all run out. But the Flux was not so actual quite, 
Though always thought by all around to be a prospect right. 

Yet finally he turned it down so cold that skating ice 
Was formed on all the rivers in the county. Crisp and nice 
His language and his manner, but it must have been pure waste, 
As ugly indolence his mental processes encased, 

While he repudiated this amazing prodigy, 

Which afterwards turned out a wonderful, rich mine to be." 

And Bird thus rid his mind of his profoundly deep contempt, 
About an expert whom he roundly cursed, e’en while he dreamt: 
“ When Horace Steal came out to view the great Bonanza lode, 
He failed to see its strong and salient points, and though he rode 
Along the outcrop, he would not dismount to scan its web 
And texture, or the various ores from which its values ebb; 

As oft when near the surface in this dry and seething clime 
They do. And so he forfeited his opportune and prime 
Occasion for the making of a reputation fine, 

By opening this well known, and after, great producing mine. 

A little further thought or little curiosity, 

A little energy had handed to eternity 

His honor and his fame, like that of Argonauts of old, 

Whose faith, inspiring their herculean works, is often told. 

But disinclined to action, which is commonest of faults, 

He wastes this rare occasion, and by sluggishness defaults 
In all his manly and alert expectances, and fails, 

Where prosperous results were easy, granting nobody quails. 


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MINERS’ TROUBLES 


If all were active, no one lazy, history would swerve 
From what we find it, and the stirring tales of daring nerve 
Would be the common thing; and those who now are left behind, 

The foremost ranks and coveted rewards would surely find.” 

And Holmes stirred up by mean remembrances, that would not fade, 
Consigned to all the depths: “The vile, four-flushing renegade, 

That Algy Stupid! one of those whom I have, gunless met, 

Who thinks because a man resides without the city’s net, 

He either is beneath contempt, as one who knows no guile, 

Or is a sorry fool, who hides from civilization’s wile. 

He does things which in town he’d never think to undertake, 

Though frequently he thwarts his own designs, and burns his cake, 

By throwing off the bindings of restraint, which in the town 
Would hold him down to decency. For like a low born clown, 

This Algy came to my abode one early Sunday morn, 

With a cup or so too many yesternight, and looking worn, 

As those who follow Bacchus, and unkempt and badly dined; 

And told of introductory letter he had left behind, 

And knew not that he branded thus himself, an ill-bred wretch, 

As one who should pursue his calling to convey and fetch. 

Moreover to his other insults, he besides declared 
That I had nothing worth the seeing: even this he dared! 

And though this case is most extreme, it is in principle 
The same with many others, though they feel invincible 
In greater heed to fair discretion; even so more harm 
Inflicting on the miners, suffering in prolonged alarm!” 

So though they tried to bear it they recalled their wrongs with heat, 
And said some things which would be wiser not to here repeat. 

But all they said they felt, dislike and hate their measure fill, 

While Doyle thus voiced a common thought among the men who drill: 

“But worse than these (in its perpetuation in a book), 

The testimony of the engineers, sent out to look 
A struggling district over, and well found at public cost, 

Remains a monument of ignorance and labor lost! 

Too lazy to inspect accumulated evidence, 

Too quick to call the miners ignorant men devoid of sense, 

And then because they chance to know a scientific word, 


MINERS' TROUBLES 


77 


However illy built up to express the thought, unheard 
Before in mountain camps, they really think they know it all, 
Refusing credence to results obtained by miners’ maul. 

And so they have to fill their books with foolish old-wives’ tales, 
With guesses as to ores, inspired by favor not by sales. 

The field geology is left to other time ahead, 

For very ignorance or sloth, and when the camp is dead! 

They write obituaries based on long passed, buried acts, 

When there is no one left to criticise or tell the facts. 

Or if by chance it comes out sooner, does more harm than good, 

By reason of discrepancies and facts misunderstood. 

By wanton narrative, persuaded by the sight of gold, 

The truth is far distorted, or the gains are overtold. 

They bend the facts to theories, far in advance devised, 

And wonder why they’re not accepted by the camps and prized. 
They seem like barnacles, with which the ship her bottom cloaks, 

Or mistletoe or other parasite, on grand old oaks! 

Our mineral wealth is all obtained from camps well known before 
They butted in; they certainly discourage search for ore! 

And now and then the one, whom faithful honest work behooves, 

Is but exception to the rule, that truth of precepts proves.” 

These and some others were a tiresome trial, David thought, 

But such were transitory, and with calmness could be fought; 

But those who lived around the hills and in their bluer mood 
Reviled the country’s future, were not easily understood 
By strangers dropping in; though to the miners it always seemed, 
That their denunciations were but as when the high sun beamed 
On moistened banks of earth, and brought the vapor’s rising cloud; 
Such talk made vapors, whose malignance all the bravest cowed. 
But most of those indulging in them labored toward a goodly end. 
Just as the vapors helped the earth its fruiting rich to lend. 

The antics of these experts likewise pass with no regret, 

The condemnation of the world is all they ever get. 

In a country of such old endeavor, which has seen the dawn 
Of human history, and through whose defiles has come and gone 
The countless march of weary feet, and in whose long-drawn strand, 
A life or two is but a leap of time—the second hand 


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Of any clock that measures time, marks not a faster leap— 

And a thousand years are as a day—and yet! we still but creep 
To our appointments; and neglect the duties at our touch, 

The various tasks that well worked out can surely answer much. 

When Coronado, barely fifty years beyond Colon, 

En route to Cibola and cities seven, journeyed on 

The great high road that wound among the Santa Rita hills, 

And stopped to search for precious metals on the upper rills, 

He heard long legends from the ancient days when tools of stone 
Were used to break the rocks; and under drifts of sand long blown, 
Were found the hammers, arrow-heads and pottery remains, 

Which indicates their occupation and the truth entrains. 

Historic data even prove that here was really made 

The first colonial settlement now beneath Old Glory’s shade. 

Tubac was founded early, but its name, “Where waters rise,” 

And situation at a natural fountain, where the sighs 
Of frogs are heard throughout the year, most surely indicate, I 
That here was a village of the races; for the waters wait 
For passing men, throughout this desert land, and govern quite, 

The locus of all settlements and the choice of building site. 

And this no matter whether the recruits were white or red. 

The water, when there was none any other place, was bread 
And drink alike; it was the one thing quite material, 

And so will be, and so has been from time long immemorial. 

Such mines as were discovered by these venturers from below, 

Were worked immediately, as befits the mineral show; 

For Mexicans incursions make upon a lengthened lay; 

Their reputation then was good, and so until this day. 

In search of one of such bonanza mines came many men, 

Who hunted through the hills, not only once, but yet again. 

And later all these mines were worked by Fathers of the Church, 
At the mission of Saint Joseph, who promoted constant search 
For others, new and old. This point received a steady stream 
Of gold and silver ores; the furnace and arrastra teem 
With richest products of the hills; among them fancy ores, 

From now-lost mines, as rich as any on the New World’s shores. 

The Planchas de la Plata sent enormous metal plates, 


MINERS’ TROUBLES 


79 


Discovered native in these chunks, in sands within its gates. 

The Tumacacori sent in its tons of nuggets pure, 

But whether from the sands or vein is not so sure, 

For this producer has been lost since the Fathers all were slain, 

Within the Mission, clinging to the altar of the fane. 

Here also came the strings and threads of silver, white and fine, 
Originating at the famous old Salero mine. 

There is a tale of this Salero, coming down of old; 

The Bishop on his annual tour, complained when he was told 
There was no holder for the salt, though salt there was enough; 

Before his next return, a priestly artisan, of tough 
But pliant silver, clippings of the native silver white, 

Well-fashioned a great salt-cellar for the Bishop erudite; 

The Bishop pleased by this attention formally decreed, 

Salero should the mine be called; as true resort in need. 

The stories told of riches from this mine excite the blood! 

Such silver! such amazing ores! a bonanza in the bud! 

In the massacre of nineteen hundred twelve, when all was lost, 

Their names became tradition, and the country tempest-tossed 
By fierce Apache warfare, which with little rest endured 
Until the building of the railroads lasting peace ensured. 

The lists of well known names, concerned herein, include 
The brilliant Grosvenor and the learned Stark, with blood bedewed! 

The gallant Hopkins, after whom the towering peak is named! 

The energetic Wrightson, in whose loyal heart there flamed 
The ardor of the venturer! All these gave up their lives, 

As tribute to the keen and murderous Apache knives! 

They now lie buried in the shadow of the crumbling hill; 

Their graves are rudely marked with slabs, their names recording still; 
True martyrs to the cause of modern progress and advance, 

To them we owe enduring safety and our present chance! 

In after years there followed many men of rising parts, 

Who gave to progress the constant labors of heroic hearts! 

Who met the blinding glare of fervent sun and desert sands! 

With civilization’s brilliant torch in their upraised hands! 

Who yielded their best years to prove themselves bold Nature’s aids, 
Enduring desert drought and famine and Apache raids! 


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MINERS’ TROUBLES 


Apache!! Now thy name is but remorseful memory! 

But in the hey-day of thy power thou wert adversity! 

So cruel and tenacious! so untaught! uncivilized! 

Untamed, ferocious! who the country wholly terrorized! 

Thy name was used to quiet babies, whimpering in bed! 

To fill the children, when transgressing wholesome rule, with dread! 

It frightened home-bred women, as they passed from task to task! 

It made grown men their real and apprehensive feelings mask! 

With lightning raid on valued stock and treasure far away, 

With wild and desperate fighting, hand to hand, in frequent fray, 

And sly retreat to some impregnable and rocky bar, 

The fierce Apaches made themselves a household terror far! 

Until the time when Uncle Sam the problem understood, 

And brought in troops sufficient to patrol the neighborhood. 

But while the East was learning this, the Indians showed their power, 
And kept Sonora and the Gila settlements from hour to hour, 

In sad suspense, awaiting fresh news of the savage hordes, 

Seen skulking in the narrow pass, or filing through the fords. 

Within Old Baldy’s shadow passed full many a time the bands 
Of bold marauders, led by various leaders, carrying brands; 

The wise Cochise! the fleet Geronimo! Apache Boy! 

And many others taking to the war-path in sheer joy, 

For years caused all the settlers and the miners heavy loss, 

Until the gallant Miles bestowed on them their famous sauce 
Of slaughter and defeat, and drove them all to their reserve, 

Where even now they works of industry and arts of peace preserve. 

With all their fierceness there was now and then a comic side, 

That brightened up the gloomy years, that men’s souls sorely tried. 

As when Muldoon, of territorial fame, was sent for wood 
One evening by a captain of the company, and should 
Report within the hour with fuel; but for three long years, 

No word was had from Mul. One evening at the post appears 
A man with load of wood; this person first saluting said: 

“Oh, Captain, here’s your wood;” ’twas old Muldoon come to be fed! 
Or as, when lucky Lulley kept the house at Alto’s rill; 

And Apaches killed the burro men upon the neighboring hill. 

The chimney opening was wide and Mark was narrow tot! 


MINERS’ TROUBLES 


81 


So up the flue he sped, and from his vantage near the pot, 

He watched and waited for the enemy. But while he clung 
With all his strength, he heard a sudden noise the pots among! 

The Indians with that stealth, that did enable them, they say, 

To steal the halter from the owner’s hand, and his horse away, 

Had entered in the cabin, and in order to get food, 

Had built a fire, with rotten branches that the fireplace strewed; 

Now such decay in this old wood made suffocating smoke, 

And while thus busy at their cooking task the Indian folk 
Heard ghostly noises in the chimney, threatening painful dearth 
To superstitious ears. So when Mark landed on the earth 
With spluttering cough, and sparks and cinders flying everywhere, 

Great fear fell on the Apaches, and they quit right then and there. 

So what with sorrow, there was glimpse of mirth, and when the years 
Had rolled around, though toll was taken, not realized were fears 
That civilization would be wiped from Arizona’s soil. 

Through years of civil strife, it seemed that Progress must recoil 
Upon itself; and yet those darkest years gave comfort’s cheer, 

E’en while Apaches thought that they had borne the Nation’s bier. 

Yet later knowledge came to them, and now they surely see, 

The nation’s strength, its nobleness, its magnanimity. 

All things thus seem to be of true and beautiful ordain, 

To aid in finding and restoring the Arizuma vein! 


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LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


BOOK XI 

In this we see what David’s family came in time to be; 

What David and Medora did to pass the hours with glee; 

And what they had to eat and how they got it to their home; 

The pranks and sorrows of the little ones on mountain dome!! 

Now David and Medorah were nicely matched in mind and build, 
And both brought up in Puritan restraint, and Christian guild 
That teaches service as the great ambition of mankind; 

To search for ultimate rewards in heaven, but here to find 
Occasions for assisting others on life’s rocky trail; 

To aid each straggler, and in their afflictions not to fail 
In kindness or in friendly succor, as the chance presents 
Its turn; and carry out the golden rule to all intents. 

Yet David was a solemn fellow, and with that, adroit, 

And full of strange employment and venturesome exploit; 

Not given to steady work, except along his chosen lines, 

But when it came to prospecting and the opening of mines, 

He never knew when night was come. Or at a jolly dance, 

He could be counted on till morning; but a game of chance 
He thought a sin; his training held him in repressive check 
On many points, wherein his mental reasoning brought to wreck 
His natural scruples. He was a good example of the flight 
Of years, and the changing wheel of moral pleasure and delight. 
Still he remained the man of honor, not easily beguiled, 

The very one to guard a widow or an orphan child. 

He was a little round in shoulder, and a trifle broad, 

But tall and gainly, wearing neither ring, nor other gaud; 

He was constant in his reasoning, but obstinate in moral need; 
Though slow in working knotty problems, he was prompt in deed; 
With all these qualities he had his temper under check, 

Though choleric about some things that others little reck. 

While firm in friendship, he was slow emotions to express, 

And got a certain name for coldness that hurt his usefulness. 


LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


83 


But living clean, he made a reputation good for life, 

That gained him friends, whenever needed in this mortal strife. 

Medora, on the other hand, though tall, was rather slim, 

And so was graceful in her motions; in her vesture trim. 

Her ears were pointed like the stars in nature’s diadem; 

Her mouth was puckered like the crystals of a priceless gem; 

Her nose was long, aristocratic and distinctive quite; 

Her eyes with heavenly ardor and divine desire alight; 

Her fair complexion was alluring in its rosy tint; 

While over neck and shoulders fell her tresses bright, whose glint 
Was far reflected to the waist-long wealth of wavy hair, 

That formed magnificent endowment, like tiara fair. 

And while her outward nature is a source of great delight, 

Her inner character is still more pleasing; for her bright 
And sunny nature makes its place among life’s many glooms, 
Relieving some and overshadowing others; she assumes 
A saving grace in every awkward situation found; 

She pleads allowances for all that selfish and unsound; 

And making friends in every class by reason of her charm, 

She brightens life for them, and draws away from many a harm; 

Her bubbling merriment, her jubilant sagacity, 

Her ready succoring, her winning personality, 

All these and more are graces which ensure her place in the sun, 

And give her standing as the cherished friend of every one. 

In happy course of time these two were blessed with children fair, 
Who came to claim their tender love, and still more tender care. 

First came a boy and then another, then a dimpled girl; 

Two boys then followed, and long after came a dainty pearl, 

Who brought God’s blessing to the twain; this little lady came, 

But tarried not for long; and though her going left her name 
With saddened memories, her coming brought consoling days, 

As when a valued friend an all too scanty visit pays. 

They mourn because her temporary sojourn was so brief, 

But thankfulness for blessings so bestowed dispels their grief. 

The other children throve, as healthy youngsters mostly thrive, 
And let the world discern that they were actually alive. 

They were born mountaineers, knew not the harrow and the plough, 


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LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


Knew not the devious ways of commerce, nor the why and how 
Of big and swollen business; nor the morals of the city crowd, 

The frantic push of millions, nor the roar of traffic loud. 

But well they knew the notes of all the mountain birds; 

The color and the perfume of each flower could put in words; 

The foot-prints of each animal they recognize at sight, 

And all the tricks of mountain weather they, assured, recite; 

They knew the various courses, which the waters take, 

When led upon the land, which otherwise would dry and bake. 

And as they common knowledge yearly gained, with yearly growth, 
They learned the simpler forms in which the ores and crystals both 
Attain their various limits; while the use of powders strong, 

The way to load the charge, and break the ore, and push along 
The work, by sinking shafts and driving drifts upon the vein of ore, 
They slowly learned; all this from Nature’s leaflets, and much more. 
And all the time they studied in their books the shifting text, 
Becoming wise and ready for whatever followed next. 

And as they grew in years and stature, their delightful pranks, 

Were a puzzle and a problem both, to David and the cranks 
Who gathered round him, gossiping about their lively ways, 

As they diversion furnished, during all their childhood days. 

And David as he fondly watched them in some boisterous play, 
Communed with his own wonder and amazement and did say: 

“Who can compete with thunders crashing from Old Baldy’s top? 
Who can from lightning’s zigzag sequence, one small segment lop? 
Who can dispatch like stones that clatter down the mountain side? 
Who can contend with fierce torrential floods, that often guide 
And all restraint defy? Who can their constant roar oppose? 

As they their sullen, mud-packed burden on the rocks impose? 

The bold and overbearing leap of waters in a fall, 

The irresistible descent of boulders from some wall 
Or mountain precipice, the snow-slide and the avalanche, 

The hurricane that prostrates sturdy trunk and swaying branch; 

The fall of loosened rock in hidden chambers of the pits, 

The blast of dynamite that breaks the hardest rock in bits; 

Who can combat these forces overpowering and ordained? 

Or face the devastation worked by nature when constrained? 


LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


85 


Can any one repeat the mocking-bird’s delicious trills? 

Can any speak the utter lonesomeness, which all night fills, 

When the screech owl looses his fierce plaint upon the silent dale? 
Who imitates the gladsome carol of the nightingale? 

Or frenzied urging by the martins one to other there, 

As they engage the hawk in combat in the upper air? 

We can not follow rifle ball, when sent upon its flight, 

Nor gauge a sunbeam shooting down into the dismal night 
Of some deep mine. We can not surely mark the wren’s quick dart, 
Nor see to keep the eagle from the cowering kid apart. 

We can not even count the fluffy young of some old hen, 

When they enmix, and run from side to side and back again. 

No more can we the noises of those children imitate! 

No more their many joyous capers understand or rate! 

Nor can we keep the slightest track of all their motions quick! 

Nor read each cunning riddle! nor discern each pleasing trick! 

Their noises vary from a broken whimper to the clang 
Of sounding voices, and the frequent yell and jolly bang, 

So full of cheer to their young spirits! While their motions all, 

Can hardly be described! birth-marked by happy Eden’s fall!!!” 

Their oldest boy was in his second year, and growing strong, 
When David went away to see a neighbor, sick for long, 

And staid all day. The boy apparently was lonesome then, 

And sought his father; but he took a trail up the canyon’s glen, 
Where none went by. He last was seen at five o’clock at night. 

And soon Medora felt his loss, and succumbed to awful fright, 

And visions of uncovered shafts and dangerous water holes, 

Of mountain lions and the other beasts, that put high tolls 
Upon the sons of men, distracted her. Up and down she’d run, 
Until her breath was gone, and her very soles were wholly done; 

She ran to neighbors, who in turn began to organize; 

And David came; and soon they all the problem realize, 

That they must systematically examine every rock; 

So this they did, and found the child before the midnight clock. 
Their gratitude was great, and their relief was strongly felt, 

For in the wild, the fates not always are so kindly dealt. 

And while this boy was but a youngster, ere the others came, 


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LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


The house in which they lived was found too small for boy and dame; 
So David built a brand new house upon a sloping bank, 

That spread out like a fan, along the canyon’s riven flank. 

The house was builded of adobes, heavy sun-dried brick, 

Which make a sturdy edifice, but one not moulded quick; 

For first there must be found deposit of the proper clay, 

Of which there’s often dearth in the mountain’s steep and narrow lay; 
This found, some grass or stalks must then be brought, and not too raw; 
And this chopped up; for bricks like these must have a little straw; 
Then water must be added, and the whole churned up by feet 
Of shoeless men, to make the mixture thorough and complete; 

All this takes time, for David mixed his mud in the month of March, 
And poured it into moulds, and later when the high winds parch 
The mountain slopes, and fiercer suns consume the desert waste, 

And to escape the heat, all things alive to cover haste, 

These unburned brick dried out, through April and through sunny May, 
Until they rung like bells, so hard became the sun-dried clay. 

And late in May the building of the structure was begun, 

Progressing, layer after layer, till the house was done. 

The mortar, made of similar mud, was sparely used, 

And tight the joints were, in the summer sun, completely fused. 

When covered with a roof of bear-grass, or of dobe mud, 

These houses firm withstand a hurricane or a three days’ flood. 

This method took too much of time, so David built his roof 
Of corrugated iron, which is here enduring, proof 
Against most ills that can the roof beset; and fast put on; 

(In seven years, if red, in twenty, zinced, must new roof don.) 

Good width were made the deep-set windows and the paneled doors; 

Of beaded stuff, the ceiling was composed, of matched the floors; 

The walls were plastered with a fine and neutral-tinted clay, 

That kept its color through ensuing years without decay; 

A monstrous fire-place in the towering chimney then was built, 

To hold the cordwood, destined later old Jack Frost to wilt; 

Much comfort got they from the open fire, and many a night 
In coming years, old friends were fed before the flickering light. 

A wide and spreading porch he built, the fabric all around, 

Supported by some simple columns, and for floor, the ground; 


LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


87 


Here gathered all the family in the glorious summer time, 
Discussing, gossiping, and reading sparkling prose and rhyme. 
About the house they planted many a tree and flower and shrub, 
And worked like beavers to protect from insect and from grub; 
Enriched the ground; and carried water in the summer heat; 

And grew the native cactus, cottonwood, and the tough mesquite. 

They had a few square rods of garden, fenced with woven wire, 
To keep the rabbits, fowl and squirrels out. Destruction dire, 

The busy scratching fowl inflicted on the sprouting seeds, 

The rabbits on the sweet barked fruit trees, hid by rampant weeds, 
The squirrels on the blushing peach, when searching for the stone; 
While all grew fat on ripening fruit or vegetables sown. 

As well, in dearth of other greenery, in the arid days, 

The birds combined to plunder and destroy the peas and maize, 
The melons and the calabasas, and the whole parade 
Of useful crops and pretty flowers in the garden made; 

For in the month of June, a real green plant stood out athwart 
The general grayness like the beckons that attentions court. 

Yet still a head of lettuce or a radish, grown to fork, 

Was welcomed on the table; a mess of spinach cooked with pork; 
Or a plate of beet tops, with the roots like marbles; dish so rare! 
Was deemed a succulent mutation in the bill of fare, 

Which in the main consisted of frijoles, bacon fat, 

The various products of white wheaten flour, and such as that! 
And every thought-of thing in cans, like beans and peas and corn, 
Tomatoes, pumpkins and asparagus; all these adorn 
The tables of the rich and poor alike. Without such vamps 
No life could long exist in Rocky Mountain mining camps. 

And as for choice of fruits! the sunny slopes of Malaga, 

The irrigated gardens fair of California, 

The Ozark solitudes, the uplands of My Maryland, 

Wisconsin’s berry fields, burnt over with a fiery brand, 

Arabian ridges and Sahara crossed by caravan, 

All send their choicest fruits preserved in soldered can!! 

While as to meats, the realms of fancy are explored to get 
The flesh of beasts, the breast of fowl, the finny yields of net!! 

And can them up; until Medora longed to fly away, 


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LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 


Where cans no longer could be seen, and there forever stay. 

And yet Medora from the country, learned good food to glean! 

Two dishes that were handed down by the Indian cuisine 

Are worth recording here. As welcome change, the one well spread, 

The other in the desert west, at times replacing bread; 

And both delicious when prepared by willing, knowing, hands, 

And equalling the choicest viands of all other lands. 

In early summer, when the system craves variety, 

The half grown Lima beans are par-boiled very carefully; 

To them is added evergreen sweet corn, cut off the cob, 

The milk expressed with scraping knife-edge, to complete the job; 

And all is put to simmer in the largest iron pot, • 

With right amount of seasoning, and of pickled pork a tot; 

To all is added butter or the morning’s thickest cream, 

That when it graces meat, the epicure’s bewildering dream 
Is realized. This is the essence of an ancient dish, 

Improved but little to replete all gustatory wish. 

This dish still bears the ancient Indian name of succotash! 

And memories of its succulence through vivid visions flash. 

Or roast the white mescal, deprived of outer dagger leaves, 

In sunken pit, the fire above, until its fibre heaves; 

Remove it from the earth, and boil in native earthen pot, 

With all concomitants, and keeping all continuously hot. 

Add flank of pig to flavor it. The natives use wild boar, 

Called jabali by Moorish settlers, thoroughly boiled before, 

Which, fed on mast, when summer rains are copiously sent, 

Is sweet to taste, and properly prepared, they say is lent 

From the happy hunting grounds, beyond our brief life’s barrier pales, 

To satisfy and utterly content; so run their tales. 

They add the oak-leaved pigweed, thriving on the rocky waste, 

The garlic scented mustard, with its sharp and piquant taste, 

Quamasia bulbs, well stored and cured, that lowly grasses lord, 

And all the numerous wild greens that dot the scanty sward. 

This served with any roast or by itself is kingly food, 

But when accompanied by the native walnut meat, well chewed, 

And a fragrant drink, made from mesquite beans, like thick chocolate, 

It furnishes repast for gods, who dwell in heaven’s gate. 


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89 


And all in all, ’tis gathered from the common scenery, 

Though food for angels, Tis inspired by hungry penury. 

The apples of love, the red tomatoes growing wild and free, 

On rocky hills, in shady valleys; destined hence to be, 

The staff of thousands in the mountains and the desert lands: 
America’s soft answer to imperative demands 
Of hunger; which along the water courses ever push 
Their way, and flourish in the shadows of chilopsis bush, 

Which builds upon the sandy sediments, its frail off-shoots, 

And in the wash sends down its thick and ramifying roots; 

In glowing summer days, throws out its lilac colored flowers, 

And gives the desert most enchanted heavenly perfumed hours. 

Another gift of nature, in the new world early found, 

The mealy and thin-jacketed potatoes, which abound 

Where planted. Many a time have they preserved a hungry race, 

And ever grew in favor, to assist the spoils of chase, 

And finally the chase itself to limit and curtail; 

Becoming sole support of thousands as its traits avail. 

The pumpkin, also, yellow image of the great round world. 
Whose so delicious sweetness in the Yankee pie is furled; 

In great rectangled tins they cooked it; and its fame has gone 
To other lands, to other hearts, Columbia’s spicy pawn. 

While David liked the merry dance and had a generous place, 

It was not often that the neighbors gathered face to face; 

Because the roads and mountain trails were all so bad, 

That travel in the night was dangerous; they could not gad 
About in darkness, over rocky bluff and unmarked shaft, 

And so were forced to trip all night, with gay Terpsichore daft. 
Moreover music was not always to be had on tap, 

And phonographs replace not fiddles, though they fill a gap. 

The Mexicans about the camp had smart fiestas too, 

With gay amusements, and remaining till the morning blue; 

They danced in general on the well-compressed, hard-beaten ground, 
Excelling in the art, as those in difficulties found, 

Who by the very labor, the unequal floor required, 

Extraordinary grace, and ease, and suppleness acquired. 

Medora sometimes went with David to these night affairs, 


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Enjoying their spontaneous frolics and coquettish airs; 

And though they never learned to dance on mother earth, 

They took a sympathetic part in innocence and mirth. 

At all the balls throughout the county, during this gay while, 

The Mexicans were welcomed with a hand-shake and a smile; 

And even now no lines are drawn for strictly racial cause, 

So long as all obey propriety and fashion’s laws. 

When David goes to one of these occasional mountain balls, 

He takes his carriage, when the road in order him be-falls; 

And where there is no road, he uses saddles principally, 

And riding over trails, he gets there ordinarily, 

By mounting, taking each a child, behind them or before, 

And as the family grew, it needed only horses more. 

In moments of dejection, David took a mountain ride, 

Medora often riding with the children by his side; 

And from some mountain spur, admired the country spread around, 
Their eyes both physical and mental by no limits bound. 

And thus explored they all the interesting mines and lodes, 

The crags and hidden rills; located all the trails and roads; 

And from the open air, God’s comfort and his cheer attain, 
Preparing for the discovery of the Arizuma vein! 


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91 


BOOK XII 

And now we say good-bye to these old mountain friends of ours, 
While thanking them for pleasant thoughts in many idle hours; 

But not before we make well known their lucky mining strike, 

And wish them wisdom to conduct themselves as all would like!!!! 

In David’s second summer, he began to ship his ore, 

By sending a car-load from the Jersey Girl to Luna’s door; 

Good silver ore with copper carrier; and his returns 
Ran into money, and easy money that the pocket burns. 

Next Silver Sally gave her quota of bonanza stuff; 

Two thousand ounces, mostly chlorides in the matrix tough. 
Another year and Warrior gave some cars of copper red, 

Which was not fancy grade, but brought him butter on his bread. 
And other time, the Silver Necklace furnished him with food, 

And this a carbonate well-charged with silver, long time wooed. 

The Copper Chieftain gave him ore of base and sulphurous cast, 
With zinc and lead and copper mixed together, and aghast 
The short returns from the smelter left him. And surprising too, 
That such a multitude of values should impoverish you; 

But metallurgical experiments have not yet proved 
Successful methods for some ores; and such ores can be moved 
With difficulty at a profit; especially ores of zinc, 

Whose values from a profitable manipulation shrink; 

The zinc, so far from being worth its metal value there, 

In most ores serves to gather and increase the tret and tare. 

For during all this time he was long distance from the rails, 

And cost of hauling ore was more than doubled on the trails, 

In lieu of well-made wagon roads; and even on the roads, 

The County’s little money was ill-spent, and small the loads, 

That could be carried. Burros with their patient bending backs, 
Brought down from off the hills the heavy over-burdening sacks; 
And here transferred to huge steel wagon, with a stout built box, 
Which ground its weary, creaking way to town o’er countless rocks; 


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THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


And there the sacks are tumbled on the ground, and later thrown 
Aboard the car, and sent to smelter and the sampling cone. 

For several hundred groaning miles it rolled its way along, 

And once arrived was sampled and assayed; and for a song, 

Was bartered, if the ore was not of higher grade. And next 
Was layered in the furnace in between the coke, and vexed 
By heat so fierce that the rocks, refractory, like waters run, 

And molten metal from the fire, flares up like blazing sun; 

And even then the fiery process tarries incomplete, 

For other thousand miles the product goes, and other heat 
The useless substance must endure, from which comes out refined, 

The metals all, for which the ore was earlier sought and mined. 

With varying fortune David worked his mines and shipped his ore, 
Developing the lodes, as might be done, and putting more and more 
Of mineral in sight of men, until he had enough, 

To warrant the erection of a mill, to treat the stuff. 

As often happens in the mining fields, a small per cent 
Of ore extracted, known as smelting ore, is directly sent 
For treatment in the furnace; while the larger, poorer, mass. 

Is too impoverished to stand the freights. In another class, 

It must be placed, and beneficiated on the spot, 

By means of simple separation, ere the melting pot. 

In order to effect this separation, the ore is ground 

To fineness, in great rolls that fast revolve, or stamps that pound 

Eternally in duty’s name. As usually the case, 

Tremendous tonnage must be opened in each mining face, 

To give the operation size, to cut the milling cost, 

To get the ore out cheap, to overcome the motions lost, 

And take advantage of the savings and the earnings vast 
Of a prosperous organization, whose economies forecast 
A profit, where a smaller work would show a certain loss; 

Enabling size alone, to utilize what else were dross. 

Though David thus eked out his life, and brought his family through, 
He always sought for better things, and always kept in view, 

The building of a mill and smelter, when he had the mine, 

Developed amply to supply them, and the ore assign 
For various milling purposes. But as his family grew, 


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93 


Expenses also mounted up, and ever something new 

Was wanted and required. As when the brood of flies upmount, 

From furtive breeding place, in numbers that defy a count, 

In looks and fact innumerable; so David faced a cloud 
Of needs and fancies, that for recognition buzzed aloud; 

Which came from basic wants, deep hidden in the heart below, 

And rose up in a swarm to claim his gains, like angry foe; 

So mill and smelter and such other plants, were in abeyance kept, 

While David from one crag of duty to another leapt. 

But opportunely for this faithful man, he started work 
Upon his Otter lower tunnels which in darkness lurk. 

Along the western sweep of the canyon box, where ever run 
Old Baldy’s waters, in their fated course to the setting sun; 

And there he found at the tunnel level, where the water’s roar 
Could easily be heard, a widening belly of rich ore. 

This fine deposit proved to be enormous in extent, 

And spread across the lode, by no sure boundaries pent. 

But where he cut the lode, it carried copper, gold and lead, 

Which led them further in the vein, and upward, and ahead, 

Until, on nearing grass-roots, old and caving works were found, 

Made long before, and here the ores of silver specially abound; 

And very rich are they, and David fills his coffers heaping full, 

With shipments from this copious store. With drill, and spoon, and bull, 
The miners pushed the work in drift and stope; the ore enriched, 

Until the men all thought their favorite fairies had bewitched 

The seamed and checkered vein, and turned to glistening, sparkling ore, 

The masses of the country; no debate with all its lore, 

Could add more certain merit, and no fairies were required, 

To understand the worthiness therein, so well attired. 

So work was pushed, and the bonanza character of the mine 
Was quickly made apparent to the world. And as a sign, 

The country soon filled up, with strangers seeking Nature’s womb. 

And mining for a term enjoyed a good old fashioned boom. 

As all may see, in spite of civilization’s far advance, 

That men will stake their all on Fortune’s smile or Jason’s chance. 

One day, in driving forward in a narrow lower drift, 

A strong and bubbling stream of water came along a rift, 


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THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


That cleaved the rocky face in front; this stream ran on for days, 
And when the cavities behind seemed drained of surplus sprays 
The work was pressed again. A drill is warily driven before, 

Not knowing how much water lay above, as single core 

Does not leave space to drown the men. This opens finally out 

Clear into ancient galleries. The water currents spout 

With devastating force. Then frightened flees the watchful crew, 

Who all in their excitement raise a loud halloo, 

And clamber out and hunt for David up and down the camp, 

To come and oversee the job, with flare and gleaming lamp. 
Responded he at once, and when the water was all gone, 

The men resumed the work of one accord, and hard and drawn 
Their faces in intensity of feeling, as they drilled 
The hurried round. They soon with song the vaulted chamber filled, 
And as the swinging hammers on sonorous steel rebound, 

The noise, reechoing down the passage, made the mine resound. 

The holes well drilled and loaded, all was ready to ignite; 

The fuses placed and lighted one by one, the charges bite 
Into the rock with rending force, that shatters end and side, 

And leaves the drift without a face, but darkly yawning wide. 

As floods of water rushing forth from pools beneath their jet, 

And poisonous gases from the blast, infest the air, still wet 
With upshot vapor, David and his men with mutual zest 
Thrust in the gaping depth, pursuing eager curious quest 
Of unknown mysteries. So quick their speed, so great their haste, 
That several men fell in the sump, just blasted out of waste, 

With which some very ancient galleries had been formerly filled; 

And over whose projecting edge, they had in hurry spilled! 

And David, while they floundered in the sump, was knocked awash 
By heavy pieces falling from the ancient stope, which swash 
The water over all. And one great piece w T hich fell in front, 

Was found so heavy when he lifted it, with many a grunt, 

That he examined it, when lights were brought and mists abate, 

And found it to be native silver in its purest state!! 

When David saw, when once the glitter left his startled eye, 

And some investigation had revealed the mountain high, 

Of dazzling silver ore within the long abandoned stope, 


THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


95 


He knew that now at last, he’d found the old adventurers’ hope; 

That here in his own mine, where least he thought to such attain, 

He had the long mined riches of the Arizuma vein! 

He hunted up the manuscript old Figueroa left, 

And studied it anew in light of the rich find, now reft 
Once more from its surrounding and protecting sentinels, 

The rock-ribbed walls, that solidly enclose the narrow cells. 

And as he read the ancient words, ’twas like a fairy tale, 

To see how neatly and correctly he described the pale, 

Yet highly valued silver mass. For though the ore was hid 
Long after him, its character was such, that none could rid 
His mind of its amazing sorts; so Figueroa told, 

The kind of ore, its markings, and location there, of old. 

And after close inspection on the surface of the ground, 

The old and caved-in entrance to the buried mine was found. 

Once found it was surprising how they could so overlook, 

So plain a work, though time had well concealed this sheltered nook. 

And if one doubt were really felt about the origin 

Of these great heaps of riches, in this underground-made bin, 

It was dispelled when at the end of this long hidden ore, 

Was found, with silver cross upon its front, a copper door!!! 

In Figueroa’s manuscript was found the clearest proof, 

In full description of the way this door was to the roof 
And tunnel floor cemented; this was done in such a way, 

Ingenious and quite different from the fashion of our day. 

And all the miners who had learned the tale, now mourned the loss 
Of those brave men, who mounted there of old, the silver cross! 

No person could describe in all the time there ever is, 

The hush that fell on all, nor the following half-smothered sh-z-z, 
With which the excavation of these riches was begun. 

And started once, as day by day, the treasure, ton by ton, 

Was brought to light, and stored in David’s strong-hold for its care, 
The crowd in wondering amazement, fast assembled there. 

And many came a hundred miles, to see, what none before 
Had ever seen, the salvage of such long-forgotten ore. 

The people came from everywhere, and if allowed to take, 

Each one a souvenir, there would be left not even stake 


96 


THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


For one poor prospector, such their numbers in the sudden rush, 

Of curious persons joining in the overwhelming crush. 

But finally the task was finished, and the ore on top; 

And none again are like to see so rich and sudden crop. 

The people then dispersed, to carry to the ends of earth, 

The story of the wondrous cache, and its owner’s honest worth. 
And soon throughout the gasping world, the fame of David spread, 
As one who by hard labor comes at night to well-earned bed. 

Thus ever wings the name of him, who by some honest chance, 
Becomes so rich, that all his virtues but his luck enhance. 

His other ventures prospering, and with the millions more, 

This lucky finding netted him, and other sums that pour 
Into his honest hand from mines, just coming to their own, 

Soon David was a very envied individual grown. 

Yet all men gave him credit for his even temper still, 

His decent conduct, his restraint, and the way he curbed his will. 
He neither had two wives, nor yet divorced that gentle one 
That had consorted with him through those toiling years; and none 
Accused him of deceit in business, nor of fraud in trade, 

Oppression of his miners, nor unholy profits made. 

Some friends of his made efforts to estrange him from the land 
That gave him such amazing wealth; he could not bite the hand, 
That fed him well; nor less could he the glowing hills desert, 

In whose bewildering folds, he found such life; and still alert, 

He cared not to exchange the free and mobile mountain life, 

For social struggles in the midst of restless city strife. 

As little David and as little did Medora care. 

To jostle with the crowd, and face the multitude’s harsh stare; 

So they remained at what to them appeared like duty’s post, 
Avoiding ever crowded trackways, and the city host. 

All towns extended their glad hands for David’s mounting heap, 
And offered him excitement and surprise and loss of sleep; 

And capitals of finance and of state-craft and of sport, 

Were bidders for the lucky couple. But though every sort 
Of life appealed to them, as worthy of a transient look, 

They soon grew tired of travelling and returned to their own nook. 
And here they soon found binding duty and far-reaching plan, 


THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


97 


That kept them busy in the hope of bettering the fate of man. 

It may appear that in the modern scheme, the voice of wealth, 
If speaking in the open or if whispering by stealth, 

Is powerful over all consideration and dispute; 

A claim, it may be difficult to argue and refute; 

And yet in course of time, this w r ealth if used against the state, 

Is just as helpless as the other agencies of fate, 

That tended to enslave mankind or liberty curtail; 

As in the end all efforts to this end will surely fail. 

We’ve passed the age of superstition, the cult of brutal force, 

The age of chivalry, the rule of kings from heavenly source; 

And though these may in part the military arm inspire, 

Their reign is transient, and fair knowledge shall the world acquire. 

Thus on this weighty subject, David pondered, pensive made, 
By long continued argument. For he had hoped to aid 
Humanity’s high aspirations. But he did not care 
To only imitate the great philanthropists, nor dare, 

To wander off in maze of unknown and secretive trails, 

Where losing his direction quite, he consequently fails 
To render as he wished. 

As Smithson in an early hope, 

Endowed an institution, which has since enlarged its scope, 

Has helped diffuse much useful knowledge in its splendid course, 
And still remains forerunner as wise learning’s fertile source: 

As Harvard and as Yale, those harbingers of coming flocks, 

Who left their gold for higher education’s treasure box, 

And gave this land its liberal tendencies, as always gives 
Increasing freedom, the temple where unshackled knowledge lives: 
As steel intrenched Carnegie, benefactor of the class, 

From whose devoted labors, he obtained the golden mass, 

Whose stamped rouleaus reach out to teach, to liven and amuse, 

By means of libraries, furnishing all sciences and news: 

As Rockefeller with his superabundant gatherings, 

Now tries to draw from poverty, its most distempered stings, 

By college, hospital, foundation and disease research, 

And strives to render back the cheer of learning and of church! 

As in my boyhood home, I knew quite well our richest twain; 


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THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


One making money in the factory, named Edward Bain; 

The other Zalmon Simmons, God’s own noble gentleman, 

Grew rich by having faith, and ever being in the van, 

In transportation, manufacturing, and commerce all; 

These vied with one another to respond to every call 
Of the distressed, the homeless, and such sad unfortunates, 

Whose case, like Ruth’s, is publicly debated at the gates; 

Who knows how many secret and compassionating acts, 

These gentlemen contrived, where no one knew the inner facts. 
But Simmons gave the library and the tapering monument, 

To civil war’s respected dead, who saved a country rent. 

How many such there are who never gain a world renown, 

And maybe never get the plaudits of their native town, 

We’ll never know, but as I think of these, my heart grows light! 
And faith in human nature resurrects, and faith in right. 

As others in some score of ways, seek blessings to bestow, 

By massing wealth, no longer needed, that can then the woe, 

And bitterness of life relieve; though still intelligence 
Has little mastered truths, whose widely spreading influence 
Affects the lives of all. 

Some sage has said that in advance, 

A little does more good than much given after some mischance; 
But while our millions are at call for war’s absurd alarms, 

For doubtful foreign policy, or expansion’s subtile charms, 

We’ve little left, to ward off misery, or wants provide, 

In time to make the people truly happy, far and wide. 

But soon, no doubt, the human mind will grasp this solemn truth, 
And mankind bend its energies to build this work of ruth. 

The mission of America, while standing in the day, 

Must be to tell the truth, encourage honesty, and pray 
That no hypocrisy, nor falsified diplomacy, 

Shall make the nations waste their substance and ability 
In vain contendings, and in criminal, outrageous strife; 

So much is still demanded to perfect this mundane life. 

In days of early settlement, when men were scattered wide, 
Across a wild, untutored land, and all must needs abide 
Dependent on their own resources, liberty prevailed, 


THE OLD MINE REFOUND 


99 


Of widest scope: nor privilege nor license were empaled 
By interfering laws, and frontier custom took the lead, 

By which were loosely governed, all who cared its rules to heed. 
But as the people spread, new laws, restricting natural right, 

Were needed and engrossed, to curb the somewhat rule of might; 
And thus insuring liberty in fullest sense to men, 

Prerogatives were shorn from some, and given to society then. 

Just so it must be done with national rights, they must be shorn! 
For sets of rules that might apply to men in ignorance born, 

Now can not govern all the nations with complete success. 

Men know too much! Have seen the evils that the world distress! 
And in these days of quick communication and report, 

No military lord! nor priestly head! nor regal sport!, 

Can have his selfish way, unchecked by full publicity. 

For national independence must give way to liberty, 

And even racial prejudice must learn to curb its jaws, 

In name of common good, and greater Freedom’s sacred cause! 

So David thinking plod his simple way, and always thought 
That he must, as a duty, minister to all who brought 
Their troubles to him. That as the nation could not be relied 
On in its present state of civilization, to help guide 
A sacred trust; so more devolved on him to hold the plow, 

To up-turn hoary sods of ignorance and tyranny now. 

But though he held these older fashioned notions fixed, 

The children were alive with later fancies intricately mixed 
With all of his, and in the up-growth of his wealth and power, 

It gave him precious satisfaction to behold the hour, 

When he could all their wishes uncomplainingly confer, 

A thing impossible when they were little; yet incur 
No dangerous indulgence; for privations of these years, 

Had taught them moderation in desires, and needs, and fears. 

Regretfully, we leave them here, their children budding out, 

To solve the problems of their hour, with little doubt, 

That they will find some good to do, along life’s narrow lane, 

With riches gathered from the famous Arizuma vein. 


FINIS 
























































































































































Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2009 

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